Konoha Adventures
by wolf08
Summary: Join Sakura, a new student, at this enormous and unusual school called Konoha High. Weekly field-trips in groups of 3, soccer on an all-boys team, capturing the most popular boy's attention, and many other adventures await! sasusaku, naruhina, nejiten
1. The Adventure Begins

**KONOHA ADVENTURES!**

**Written by: ME**

**Summary: Meet Sakura Haruno; an average student, who is now attending a new high school. New friendships, hardships, field-trips and rivalries wait just beyond Konoha High's front doors…**

**Declaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters, but this story idea is rightfully mine.**

**Well…enjoy!!!!!!**

**NOTICE!! IF YOU HAVE BEEN READING THIS STORY FOR AWHILE, YOU WILL SEE THAT I HAVE SHORTENED THE CHAPTERS! (Don't worry; I didn't cut anything out). That was because my chapters used to be too long and it was taking too long to update!**

**Chapter1: The Adventure Begins!**

Sakura shot up as if she had been catapulted out of her bed. She scanned her new room carefully until her eyes at last met her pink alarm clock in the far corner. She squinted her jade eyes in the bright sunlight. _6:50_, it read. She slumped back into her pillows. She still had a few minutes…wait a minute! _6:50_?!

She literally dived out of bed and made a dash for the bathroom. Sakura Haruno, one of the most organized and obsessive people in the world, was _not_ and I repeat: _was_ _not _going to be late for her first day in a new high school.

She rummaged through her new closet (which was filled with boxes), and at last found the package the school had sent to her. When she had first received it, she had been surprised to find that its contents did not include a regular school uniform- but only a pair of navy blue sandals and a matching navy blue headband. The center of the headband bore the symbol of a leaf- which she assumed would eventually have some sort of meaning.

She tied it around her head and allowed a few strands of her pink locks to flop forward. She wore a fitted, black t-shirt with a hallow white circle on the back. She wore a red skirt that went down to her knees and had a slit on one side. She studied her reflection on the mirror, occasionally adjusting her headband. She wanted to make a good impression today to her new classmates and teachers.

She peered at her watch and it read: 7:10. She had a quick breakfast, bade her parent's goodbye, and rushed out the door with her backpack loosely slung over her shoulder.

She ran down the street until she at last reached her bus stop. She counted 7 other people at her stop- each glancing at her for a moment, and then resumed staring down the road. She felt awkwardly out of place, but had grown used to this feeling because she had moved a lot.

When the bus finally came roaring down the street, she followed the seven others onto the bus, and off they went.

She prayed that she would make it through this day.

She departed the bus and felt her jaw drop when she saw the enormous building looming over her. This couldn't be her school…this was a castle. By far, this was the largest building Sakura had ever seen. Not only that, Sakura had never seen so many people. Students of a variety of ages were scattered all over the school grounds. Most of them were in groups and were wearing top-quality designer outfits. Sakura felt extremely out of place.

After evading the bunches of people and the flying objects, she finally entered the school. The entrance hall was about double the size of Sakura's whole house. It was decorated with banners, school symbols and artwork. There were also doors. Hundreds of doors. Each door was leading to a different stairway, hallway or classroom. She rubbed her eyes and felt sweat-drops roll down her forehead. Oh man, how on earth was she going to find her classes?

There weren't as many people in the entrance hall, Sakura noticed. She had space to move around. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her class schedule. It read as follows:

_Homeroom/Period one: English- Hatake, Kakashi Room 583B_

Sakura sighed. She needed help. She looked around, hoping to find a familiar face, but she didn't know anyone. She spotted a girl who appeared to be about her age who was stapling papers to a bulletin board. She had a long, blonde ponytail and was wearing a black skirt and a white tank-top. It was worth a shot.

Sakura walked over to the board and pretended to be reading the papers- hoping to catch the girl's attention. When her plan had clearly failed, Sakura walked up to the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl spun around so quickly that she nearly collided with Sakura.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" the girl said, "I thought you were…someone else." The girl put the stapler down. "So, do you need something?"

Sakura blushed. "Well…you see…I'm lost." She looked down at her feet.

The blonde girl smirked and stuck out her hand. "Ah, so you're new here? Nice to meet you! My name's Ino! Who are you?" Sakura shook Ino's hand and smiled timidly. She was revealed that the people here weren't as snobby as they appeared.

"I'm Sakura. Yeah, I'm new here."

Ino bowed politely. "So Sakura, which class are you looking for?"

Sakura quickly glanced down at her schedule. "583B." To Sakura's surprise, Ino started to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"I'll take you to the classroom as soon as I'm finished here. You see, we have the same homeroom class. I'm sure you've noticed this symbol on our headbands too- it represents which group we're in. All of the other students who are our age and have the leaf symbol are in our homeroom. We travel around to our other classes together."

Sakura nodded. "That's a strange system. What other symbols are there?"

"Sand, Cloud, Mist and Rock. There are other existing symbols too, but they are found in other schools," Ino finished, returning to the bulletin board.

Sakura thought about this strange system. Leaf? Sand? Who came up with these things? She looked up at the board.

"So what are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, I'm posting the sign-up list for the soccer tryouts tonight. It's a boy/girl mixed team. I don't think a girl has ever made the team though," Ino answered.

"Can I tryout?" Sakura asked, remembering soccer as being her favourite sport of all time.

Ino's jaw dropped. "Well Sakura, no offence, but there is a very low chance of a girl being allowed on the team…but it's your life and I'm not going to stop you."

Sakura took a pen from her pocket and wrote:

**Sakura Haruno ******

"So Ino, are you in a lot of activities here?" She pocketed her pen.

"You bet! I'm on the Student Council, so that's why I'm posting this list, I work at my, mother's flower shop, I play the flute in the band, and I'm the president of the 'Sasuke Uchiha Fangirls.'"

Sakura was about to ask who this 'Sasuke Uchiha' was, but she then heard a shriek from behind her, followed by someone shouting, "Uchiha's here!"

Sakura and Ino spun around to find a very large group of girls gathered around the center of the entrance hall. The door swung open and the screaming got louder. A boy with black hair and a blue jacket strode in. His hair stuck out in the back and the rest of it flopped into his face. When he spotted the drooling group of girls, he froze.

"CHARGE!" one of the girls screeched, and the crowd of girls ran pell-mell at the terrified-looking guy. He started running towards the board Ino and Sakura were standing at.

"Hey Ino! He has a headband like us! Ino! Ino…?" she asked, but when she turned, Ino was in a trance- staring at the guy running towards them. "Hey Ino, are you list-," but Ino fainted. "Ino?!"

The guy named Sasuke paused before the board. He took out a pen, and beneath Sakura's name, he wrote:

_**Sasuke Uchiha**_

He was about to continue running, but he paused and glanced back at the list. "Sakura Haruno?" he said in a voice that made Sakura shiver. Sakura couldn't help but squeak. Sasuke turned to her. "You're Sakura Haruno? Are you good at soccer?"

"I g-guess," she said, "I played at my old school."

Sasuke's onyx eyes met hers. "We'll see just how good you are tonight at tryouts." With that, he ran off. Sakura watched him leave with a horde of fangirls stalking him.

"Where'd he go? Is he gone?" asked Ino, who sat up, looking around.

"Yep," Sakura said and Ino cursed. "Y'know, Ino, I don't see why a guy like that has a fan club. What's so great about him?"

Ino stared at Sakura as if she were a block of wood. "Do you have holes for eyes, woman? Didn't you _see _him?"

Sakura shrugged. "Yeah, he looks cool. But what's he like?"

"Who cares?! Anyways Sakura, I'm glad you didn't see anything good in him. If you ever do, I'll beet you to a pulp. Got it?"

"I'll remember that," Sakura said, taking a step backwards and nearly colliding with someone behind her.

"Whoa! Watch it you…you…who are you?" asked a blonde boy. "Are you new here? Weeell, I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Nice to meet you! What's your name?"

"Uh…Sakura Haruno," Sakura answered, feeling slightly nervous because of his outgoing personality.

"A-ha! You're trying out for soccer? Well good luck!" Naruto said, noticing the board. "And my good, old buddy Sasuke is trying out too. I'd better sign up," he said and taking out a pen.

**Naruto Uzumaki!!! Believe it!!!**

Ino gave him a disgusted look. "And what makes you think that you'll ever be in the same league as Sasuke?"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "Look who's talking."

Sakura held in her laugh and Ino glowered at him.

"Hey guys!" Naruto called, "Come tryout for soccer!" A large group of boys, who

Sakura assumed were Naruto's friends, came over.

"Oh! I will! Only if my dog can be the mascot!" said one of them

KIBA + AKAMARU

Another boy in a grey coat drifted over without a word.

**Shino**

"Whatever," said another.

**Shikamaru Nara**

"Only if we have pizza parties," said one who was holding a bag of chips.

**CHOJI**

"I'll slaughter that Uchiha," said a guy with creepy silver-white eyes and long hair.

**Neji Hyuuga**

"I'm going to make my master proud!" said the last one, who was by far,_ the_ scariest of all. He had a mop of shiny, black hair, bushy eyebrows and a green jumpsuit .

ROCK LEE!

There were two others standing behind the group of boys. They strode over.

"Hey Ino!" said a girl with two brunette buns in her hair.

"H-hello," said the other girl, who had the same white/silver eyes as the other boy named Neji.

"Who's your friend?" asked the first girl.

Ino grinned. "This is Sakura Haruno. Sakura, this is Tenten and Hinata. Guess what, you two! Sakura is going to be trying out for soccer tonight!"

Tenten nodded in approval. "Well, well. You're brave, aren't you? Make us proud, Sakura!" Sakura turned pink and returned her grin.

"Y-yes! Good luck Sakura! You'll be up against my cousin!" said the girl named Hinata. By her white eyes, Sakura immediately figured that Neji was the cousin she was speaking of.

"Yeah…your cousin…," Tenten said, staring at Neji dreamily. Ino smirked and then turned to Sakura.

"Well Sakura," she said happily, "including Sasuke, all of us are going to be your classmates!"

Sakura scanned them all with a smile. They seemed like a nice bunch, and noticing the jealous and dreamy looks that passer-bys were giving them, they were also a very popular bunch.

**AUTHORS NOTE: I know that Tenten, Neji and Rock Lee are supposed to be one year older than them, but I wanted to include them in the story! ******

The bell rang, making many heads turn and making many groan. Sakura tagged along with her new classmates. On the way there, Ino attempted to explain what their classroom number meant. "So the '5' in '583B' means that the class is on the fifth floor, you ignore the '8', and if the last number is odd, which it is, then the classroom will be on the right if you walk clockwise down the hallway and the 'B' means that the class is on the west side of the school. Got it?"

Sakura stared at her. "I think I'll just stick with you." Sakura followed her classmates down hallway 7, up staircase E, to floor 5, around a few corners (by now Sakura was totally lost), and at last to the door of class 583B.

Sakura smiled in relief, but her friends looked unfazed. They must be used to finding classrooms.

They went through the doors. The desks rose like bleachers and each table sat three. At the front, with his feet propped up on the teacher's desk, sat Kakashi Hatake. He had spiky, silver-grey hair and a mask that covered half of his face. Despite his hair colour, he appeared to be fairly young, and he was reading an orange book. He didn't even look up when his new students walked in.

The only other person in the large room besides their teacher was Sasuke Uchiha, who looked out of breath from being chased by his fangirls. His back was facing them and he was leaning against the window-sill- looking out the window.

"Hey! Sasuke!" called Naruto, who led the large gang across the room. Sasuke turned and replied with a lazy wave. Ino fainted again. "Have you met the new girl, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"Which one?" Sasuke asked, remembering all of the new fangirls, and facing the gang.

"Sakura Haruno!" Tenten said with a smile, and while pointing her out. Sakura was still at the other end of the room and was attempting to drag Ino across the class.

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah, I've met that one." He remembered her as the only one who hadn't been a fangirl. _Yet_.

Sakura gave Ino's arm a large yank, but in result, she fell backwards and landed on her butt. A few of the students who were filing into the room sniggered, but then received glares from Naruto's gang, making them sulk off.

Kakashi, who had finally looked up, said, "Oh! Well class is about to start so…are you a new kid?" He stared down at Sakura, who Hinata and Tenten were pulling to her feet.

"Y-yes. I'm Sakura Haruno. Nice to meet you, Mr. Hatake." More people laughed, receiving glares from Hinata, Tenten and Ino (who had finally woken up).

"Sakura," he said with a smile, "please call me Kakashi." She bowed and nodded.

"Before you take your seats, I should forewarn you that you have already been assigned seats." Groaning rang through the room. "Every Friday we will be going on a field trip. You will be divided up into three-man squads and you are to travel together at all times. You three are study-buddies and are permitted to sit together in your other classes. You are team mates and teamwork is essential. Now here are the teams:-,"

"Wow," Kiba whispered to Naruto, "that's the longest speech I've ever heard Kakashi say!" Naruto and the others nodded.

Kakashi read through a list of names. Sakura listened for names that she recognized. She finally heard "Kiba, Shino and Hinata." The three of them nodded and sat at a table in the front. Sakura caught Hinata glancing at Naruto sadly. Hinata's leader was a teacher named Kureni.

"Rock Lee, Tenten-." Tenten's jaw dropped about a mile. "And Neji." Tenten's eyes were as big as saucers. Now picture someone with a dropped jaw, wide eyes, a blush, a twitch and a shiver at the same time. You have just pictured Tenten. "They will be led by Gai on Friday's." Rock Lee dived out of his chair and landed on a random table, making the people who were sitting there flee.

"Thank you," he was muttering to himself, "I will make you proud master Gai…oh thank you…" Everyone, including Kakashi, sweat-dropped.

"Moving on then," Kakashi said nervously, turning back to his papers. "Next group: Shikamaru, Ino and Choji."

"NOO!" Ino cried, staring at her two new partners. One was glaring into space and the other was glaring at his empty chip-bag. "Why?" Ino said, whipping away an imaginary tear. Sakura felt sorry for Ino and followed her with her eyes until she sat down with a pained expression on her face. This was when Sakura noticed it.

There were two freckly and annoying-looking boys sitting in the far corner of the room. They didn't have a three-man team yet and they were pointing at Sakura and sniggering. Sakura turned back to her teacher and tried to ignore them.

"The next team is: Naruto, Sakura-," and he paused. The two boys who had been sniggering were now laughing. Kakashi even looked up.

Sakura could make out a few things they were saying: "I wonder who's going to be in pinkie's group?" "That's the idiot who whipped out in front of the whole class!" "Oh yeah! She's the one with the big forehead!" They laughed again.

Sakura continued trying to ignore them. She had always been self-conscious about her forehead being wide. She left her hair down so that it would be harder to notice. Sakura hoped that one of those boys wouldn't be the third member to her team.

Kakashi returned to his paper. "Ok then, the next team is: Sakura, Naruto-," _Not those boys… _"-and-," _Not those boys… _"-Sasuke."

"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed. A few of Sasuke's fangirls started crying. Naruto was delighted and Sasuke was backing away from Sakura.

"Sakura, I thought you weren't a fangirl…," Sasuke said, still backing away.

"Huh?" she said, looking up. "Oh! Sorry you have it wrong, Sasuke! I'm _not_ happy because I'm in your group- no offence." Everyone gasped. Ino fainted. Sasuke's eyes widened. _She had dared to insult an Uchiha in front of the whole class… _"I'm happy because I'm _not_ in _their _group," she said nodding in the direction of the annoying boys.

Sakura followed Naruto to a table, but Sasuke just stood there- flabbergasted. She was certainly different from the other girls.

"As for your leader," Kakashi continued, "He will be no one other than yours truly; me!" Naruto 'whooped', Sasuke nodded, and Sakura, not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, smiled unsurely.

Kakashi finished reading the list of groups. Most people weren't satisfied. The whines of the heart-broken Sasuke-fans could still be heard. Sakura rolled her eyes. Sasuke didn't seem that great.

Kakashi continued talking about the field-trips and how he would be taking suggestions, and how important it was to stay together. Sakura glanced at her team-mates. Sasuke was determinedly staring into space and Naruto was sleeping. "Oh great," Sakura thought, "I've got to work with a grouch and an idiot."

**First chapter is finished! I actually wrote this a long time ago, but I just organized the chapters to make them shorter. Before they were way too long so I'm cutting each one in half. I'd love reviews!!**


	2. Tryouts

**Chapter 2:Tryouts**

Their Period 1 class ended with Kakashi handing out their homework assignments. Everyone groaned.

Sakura followed her classmates to their next class. On the way there, Sakura chatted with Hinata. Behind her, Ino was glaring at her. Tenten was trying to strike up a conversation with Negi, Rock Lee was trailing behind, Naruto was talking to Sasuke and Kiba, Shino was trailing behind them, and Shikamaru was dragging Choji away from a vending machine. There's your group of twelve. The most popular kids in school.

Their next class was in a Lab. "Oh no, we have Chemistry," Naruto groaned. At the front of the class there stood a tall, thin man with long, black hair. He had yellowish eyes and pale, white skin. The classroom was eerie, but he was the creepiest of all.

"Take your seats in your groups of three," he said in a drawling voice- making everyone shiver. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke took a table at the back of the room. Ino's team and Hinata's team sat on either side of them. Tenten's team sat in front of them.

"I will now take attendance. Before I do so though, I should say the following: This will be your Chemistry Lab. I will encourage you to be creative and to experiment with things you have never seen before." Everyone paused. "I am Oroachimaru. If any of you dare to mess with me, you will find yourself in detention." No one made a sound. Accept for Naruto that is.

"Hey Sakura," he whispered, "Is it just me, or does that guy look like a snake?"

"Naruto be quiet! I don't want to get in-," but Sakura whispering was cut off by a loud, cold voice.

"You three in the back!" Oroachimaru shouted with narrowed eyes. "Stand up!" He was pointing at no one other than Naruto's team.

The three of them stood up with shock. "You dare interrupt me only after we've just met? That's it! You have a detention at lunch! All three of you! No 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'!" Sakura's eyes widened, Sasuke had no idea what was going on, and Naruto pretended to have no idea what was going on.

"Uh…w-what will we have to do?" Sakura asked nervously. She was frightened.

Oroachimaru grinned and said, "We'll see when the time comes." To the class's horror, he licked his lips with an abnormally long tongue.

During the rest of class, Oroachimaru described the basis of their course out-line, occasionally glaring at muttering students. Naruto's team was dead-silent for the rest of class. Even Shikamaru was paying attention- afraid that he too would get a detention.

The long, tense class ended with a load of homework- a three-page essay on everything they had learned in that day's lesson. No one complained and everyone dashed out the door to go to lunch. All but a certain three that is.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all walked up to the front of the room unwillingly. Sakura was mortified- she had never gotten a detention before. And to make matters worse, she was really hungry.

"Aa, you three…I have a big task for you." Naruto gulped. "Oh yes," Oroachimaru said, "You are free to leave, Uchiha. I have already heard of your exceptional skill in chemistry, so you can go. Remember to behave yourself next class."

He turned back to Naruto and Sakura with a grin planted beneath his ugly, long nose. "As for you two troublemakers, I want you to organize my entire storage room. If you break anything, you'll have another detention. If you don't finish the task by the end of lunch, you are to finish after school. Do I make myself clear?"

"A-after school?" Naruto squeaked, "We have soccer tryouts!" Sakura's eyes widened. She had nearly forgotten.

Oroachimaru's smirk widened. "I don't really care for your personal-…why are you still here, Uchiha?"

Naruto and Sakura spun around. "Sasuke, you should leave! You actually have the choice!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura nodded.

"I'm not here because I want to be with you- no offence," Sasuke said, flashing a grin at Sakura, who frowned in return, "but merely because I want to play against you at tryouts. Oh yes, we are a team too."

Naruto, Sakura and Oroachimaru's jaw dropped. Neither of them had ever heard Sasuke say so many words at once- especially _nice_ words! "Suit yourself," Oroachimaru said, shrugging and pointing towards the storage room. The three of them walked off.

They flicked on the light and froze. This room was huge and very, very messy. "Oh man, this is almost as bad as my room!" Naruto cried, receiving disgusted looks from his other team-mates.

Considering himself the leader, Sasuke stepped forward. "Ok. Naruto, you organize the shelves on the right side of the room. Sakura, you organize the cupboards on the left side, and I'll fix up the rest."

"Sasuke, why didn't you leave?" Naruto asked.

"Er…," Sasuke answered lamely.

"Yeah!" Sakura butted in, "I thought you were just a self-centered, ego-maniac! I never knew you had a split personality!" She grinned innocently.

He glared at her. This was the second time…

"I already told you," he answered in his usual unfazed voice, "We are a team." With that, Sasuke got to work. After exchanging curious glances, Naruto and Sakura followed suit.

They worked all through lunch with their stomachs growling- and right until the bell. "Well, this looks reasonable," Sakura said, staring at her side of the room.

"Same," said Sasuke- looking at what he had finished.

"And…um…," Naruto started, "I think I've made some…er…progress."

Sasuke and Sakura turned. "Gah!" Sakura gasped. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "Naruto! It looks even worse than before! We have to fix it up or we'll never make it to class!" Sakura yelled. The three of them tidied up as quickly as possible and ran out of Oroachimaru's classroom without a word.

The last two periods were Math- taught by Kureni- and History- taught by Asuma. The three of them were late for Math, but fortunately, Kureni forgave them and told them to pick up the pace next time. Both classes were very boring and Sakura counted down the minutes until the bell…her stomach was growling…

"Gym D? Where's Gym D? Sakura muttered while dashing down hallways. It had to be somewhere on the first floor…but where? Maybe it had been a bad idea to sign up for soccer in the first place.

She looked up and saw a familiar figure standing ahead of her. It was the queer kid from earlier- with a shiny mop of black hair, bushy eyebrows and a green jumpsuit. It was Rock Lee.

"Oh Sakura!" he exclaimed as Sakura approached. "Are you lost?" She nodded between pants. "Well then, I'll lead the way!" he boomed with a wide smile. She sighed with relief.

She changed in the girls' change-room into her gym clothes- navy basketball shorts and a plain, white t-shirt. She entered the gym and felt her jaw drop farther than ever before.

There was a tall man standing in the center of the room who looked like a replica of Lee…only older. He even had the same smile! Around him were a group of boys including Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Choji and Neji. Sakura looked at the group. Yep; she was undoubtedly the only girl there. "I guess all of the others girls at this school are wimps," Sakura though to herself.

"Ok gang! Hello, I'm Gai!" the Rock Lee-ish teacher said. Rock Lee cheered and the other kids sweat-dropped. The teacher called Gai took attendance and led everyone outside onto a large soccer-field.

The cool sky and cool breeze made Sakura shiver with pleasure. This was the ideal weather for soccer-playing. The large group was divided into two teams; red pinnies and yellow pinnies. Shino, Neji, Sasuke and Shikamaru were on the red team (along with a bunch of others- including two strange-looking guys with the Sand symbol on their headbands). Sakura, Naruto, Choji, Lee and Kiba were on the yellow team.

"Ok gang! We'll start the tryouts with a scrimmage! Yellow verses red! Hop to it!" Gai called. Sakura felt a little rusty, but she still gave it her all.

"Alright," Gai said, "Time for one-on-one battles. The players will be randomly selected. Here we go…Shino verses Sasuke!" Everyone gasped.

Sasuke easily stole the ball from Shino and shot it into the net. Sakura gulped. The girls hadn't been kidding about tough competition.

Neji went next against a guy she didn't know, a strange guy with red hair from the Sand went against Rock Lee, Naruto faced Shikamaru…and finally Sakura's name was called. She faced her opponent and gasped. It was the freckly kid from English class! They glowered at each other and waited for Gai's signal… "Go!"

The boy got to the ball first and prepared to make a move, but Sakura was too fast. She quickly tapped the ball out of his reach and dashed past him. She shot and the ball neatly struck the top, right corner of the net. Naruto's 'whooping' could be heard from a mile away. "So she _is _pretty good," Sasuke thought with a smirk, "but not nearly as good as me."

"GOOD JOB!" screeched Gai. "That was a perfect example of youthful spirit and courage!" Everyone sweat-dropped (accept for Rock Lee of course).

Sakura tottered off the field triumphantly and sat next to Naruto and Kiba, who both congratulated her warmly. The one-on-one battles continued. Sakura played against Choji- who she easily danced around, a strange guy from the Sand- who she was just able to beat, and Kiba- who put up a good fight, but was unable to stop her. Naruto and Sasuke were also undefeated.

"Next match: Sakura and Naruto!" Gai exclaimed. Sakura and Naruto exchanged surprised glances. This would be interesting.

This time Sakura started with the ball. Naruto stole it immediately and began running towards Sakura's net, but Sakura caught up with him and stole it back. The two of them were neck-and-neck, until Sakura finally but barely managed to get it into the net.

Everyone who was watching gasped. It was very rare that Naruto would lose in anyone- especially to a _girl_.

"Alright, final match: Sakura and Sasuke!" Gai said, obviously trying to determine who his first pick would be. Sakura looked up in surprise. But she had only just played! Sasuke smirked again. He at last had the opportunity to prove that he was definitely the best.

The tension arose as the two of them charged at the helpless soccer-ball. Sasuke got the ball first. He sprang into action and made a move- but Sakura saw through this fancy trick. As he rolled the ball, Sakura tapped it out of his reach- as she had done to the freckled boy. Slightly surprised, he stole it back. "I guess I _can't _go easy on her," he thought.

"He's a lot more challenging than the others," Sakura thought as she stole the ball back again. But then Sasuke got it. Then Sakura. Sasuke. Sakura. Sasuke. Saku- Gai. Wait…Gai?!

"Ok," Gai said, "This match is over. It's a tie game."

"A TIE?!" Sasuke and Sakura said in unison.

"A TIE?!" Naruto and the rest of the gang exclaimed.

"A TIE?!" squealed Sasuke's fangirls.

"A TIE?!" Kakashi, who had been sitting in a classroom at the other end of the school, suddenly felt like saying. He shrugged, having no idea why he had said that, and got back to his papers.

Sakura was panting. It hadn't been easy to beat Naruto _and _to tie Sasuke without any time to rest. She sat in the cool grass and was about to let herself fall onto her back, but she then felt many arms pulling her back to her feet.

"That was sooo amazing!" she heard Naruto shout.

"I don't think anyone has come so close to beating him," Negi said slowly.

"Munch, munch," Choji said.

"Y-you were awesome!" said a timid voice. Everyone spun around.

"Hey! When did you get here, Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"O-oh, I-I was just w-waiting for my cousin, Neji," she said, before giving Sakura more words of praise.

Sasuke was staring daggers at his pink-haired classmate. Had he gone easy on her because she was a girl (not that he really cared…), or was she really that good? He was panting inwardly- trying to keep his cool- but failing. "That was fun!" a voice said. He broke his stream if thoughts and looked down at Sakura, who had her hand out-stretched. He took her hand, but let go immediately. She was a threat to him. She was a threat to his perfection. He turned away with a quiet, "Hn."

Sakura smiled. "Oh he's embarrassed, is he?" she thought evilly, "Because he was nearly beaten by a girl?"

Gai next made them do drills, and he ended the tryout with goal-tending tryouts. Everyone was exhausted by the end. "Great job!" Gai exclaimed. "I think I have an idea of who will be on the team. I'll have the lists posted by the morning."

"Naruto! Hinata! Neji!" Sakura exclaimed when she got on the bus. "I didn't know that you took the same bus as me!" She sat in an empty seat beside Naruto and turned to face the two Hyuuga's.

"S-Sakura! G-great to see y-you! I guess we're n-n-neighbours!" Hinata said- stuttering as usual.

"Hey there!" Naruto said with a grin. Neji welcomed her with his usual cold stare through his white eyes.

"How did you get so good at soccer?" he asked.

"Well, I played at my old school," she said, "but I also did cross-country. I don't really know, actually. Hey Naruto, where are the others?"

He frowned in concentration. "Most of them had clubs- like Choji. If I remember correctly, he said he had a steak-eating competition. Sasuke probably got a ride home in his limo and Shino was probably out collecting bugs somewhere."

"Aa," Sakura said awkwardly.

"Oh, I'll have to cut out conversation short. This is my stop! See ya!" Naruto exited the bus with a wave.

"B-bye Naruto!"

"Yes, see you tomorrow!"

"Hn. Yeah."

They watched Naruto run into a building that looked like some sort of restaurant. "Where is he going?" Sakura asked.

"H-he's going there for r-ramen," Hinata sighed, "It's h-his comfort food. I-I think it's all h-he eats." She smiled.

"He's a strange idiot," Neji said with a Sasuke-ish smirk.

"N-no he's not!" Hinata said sharply.

"He is."

"He i-isn't!"

"Is."

"Isn't!"

"Is. Oh, and bye Sakura. This is our stop," Neji said, dragging his cousin off the bus.

"B-bye!" Hinata called. Sakura chuckled as she watched the two of them retreating towards…hold on. Was that a house? No, that building was nearly as big as the school. It was another castle. Sakura rubbed her eyes and continued staring. Hinata and Neji entered the building and lazily tossed their bags on the floor. Yes, this was definitely their home.

She sighed and leaned back in her seat. Why was it that everyone here was rich? The majority of the school's population dressed like models, Hinata and Negi lived in a mansion, and Sasuke had a limo who was probably leading him to some other fancy place!

Feeling horrible, she left the bus and walked home.

"How was your day?" Sakura's mother asked as she walked through the door.

"Fine."

"Why are you two hours late?" Sakura looked up and slapped her wide forehead. She had forgotten to forewarn her parents about soccer tryouts!

"I was actually at soccer tryouts. Sorry for not telling you about it. It was a lot of fun anyways."

Her mother smiled warmly. "It's ok. I trust you, Sakura. Here, I'll put on a tea. Why don't you tell me about your day? Did you make new friends?" Sakura sighed. Her mother still treated her like a child.

"Ok," Sakura said, following her mother to the table.

Her mother set out two steaming cups of tea on the small, circular, kitchen table, along with a plate of ginger cookies. "Thanks," Sakura said, putting her school bag down.

"So tell me about your day."

Sakura took a sip of her tea and began. "Well, our class was divided into three-man teams. My team leader- who also happens to be my homeroom and English teacher- is Kakashi Hatake. My team-mates are Naruto Uzumaki-,"

"Uzumaki? That name sounds familiar," her mother said suddenly. "Oh please continue, Sakura."

"And the other is the adored Uchiha."

"Uchiha?! What is his first name?"

Sakura was slightly surprised by her mother's sudden outburst. "Uh…Sasuke."

"I see," her mother said while sipping her tea thoughtfully, "They never told me that they had _two _sons."

"You _know_ the Uchiha's?" Sakura gasped, nearly dropping her tea.

"Well your father knows them a lot more than I do. You see, his father is your father's boss. He always mentions his brilliant son, Itachi, but I don't remember him ever saying anything about having a second son. Are you alright, Sakura?"

Sakura's had gone wide and she had nearly spit out her tea in a very un-lady-like manner. "His boss?" she said between coughs. "Well that explains the limo," she muttered. Sakura suddenly realized why Sasuke was given so much attention in school. His family had to be the richest people in all of Konoha! Sakura then remembered the times she had made fun of him. She now half-regretted it.

"Please continue, Sakura. Who are your friends?"

Sakura regained her composure and continued. "Well, we're in a group of twelve, actually. There's me, Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Tenten, Neji, and Rock Lee," Sakura said, counting on her fingers as she went.

Her mother nodded. "A few of these names seem familiar. This Hinata…is she a Hyuuga?" Sakura nodded.

"Neji is a Hyuuga too."

Her mother smiled. "It sounds like a nice group of friends you have there. What about your teachers?"

For the next fifteen minutes, Sakura described her teachers and re-capped today's events. She "accidentally" forgot to mention Oroachimaru's detention. After this conversation, Sakura finished her homework, had dinner, and started getting ready for bed- noticing that it was already late.

While she was blow-drying her hair, her cell-phone rang. Picking it up curiously, she said, "Hello?"

"Sakura!" said a familiar bubbly voice.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Um…about our English homework…you see, Sasuke wouldn't give it to me, and since we all exchanged numbers in Math class, I decided to ask you."

"What questions do you need help with?" she asked with a sigh.

"Everything."

"Eh?"

"Well…erm…I actually don't have the questions because I was sort of…"

"Sleeping?"

"Yeah that."

After rummaging through her bag, Sakura gave him the questions. "Wow! You're the best, Sakura! Now what about the answers?"

"Nice try. Goodnight Naruto."

"Aw. See you." _Click_. Sakura sighed and plopped down on her bed. She chuckled to herself- wondering how Naruto would ever finish all of those problems at this time of night. Maybe there was something in that ramen that kept him going…

She fell asleep. She had a strange dream; she was drowning in a bowl of ramen. She called for Sasuke to save her, but he instead tossed her a soccer-ball that hit her right on the head. He drove away in a limo, laughing, as Sakura started cursing at him. Then she called for Naruto, who didn't seem to be able to hear her because he was too busy doing his English homework. He asked her for help, but by then, Sakura had already drowned. Lovely dream.

**WELL FOLKS, the first day is done! I wonder what will happen next?!?!?! (well, of course I know, because I'm writing it). Please keep reading!!!!!**


	3. Family Secrets and Missing Books

**Chapter 3: Family Secrets and the Missing Books**

It was 6:30am and Sakura was up and kicking. She was already dressed and ready to tackle her second day at Konoha High. She decided that this would be the perfect day to walk to school- the sky was again clear, the cool, fall breeze was calming and best of all, there was hardly anyone outside. She bade her parent's goodbye, and began her walk.

The school was a solid half-hour away on foot, but she had plenty of time. This would also give her the opportunity to explore her new neighbourhood. She passed several houses- all slightly bigger than her own, she then passed the Hyuuga mansion, a few shops and then a few apartments. This neighbourhood was similar to her old one- accept everything was bigger.

There was still no one around- making this a lot better. She continued examining her surroundings. Konoha was indeed a beautiful village. Beyond the village, she could see a surrounding forest and mountains that were illuminated by the rising sun. Sakura let her pink hair whip around in the breeze, and she let her open jacket flutter behind her freely. This was an absolutely wonderful feeling…until she nearly collided with someone.

"Whoops! Sorry, I…I…" Sakura stopped in her tracks as her eyes met this person's face. "Naruto?!"

"What do you know? It's Sakura! Why are out so early?" he said, whipping his eyes and yawning.

"I was walking to school. What about you? You hardly look awake."

He blinked and smiled. "I was out to get breakfast- which is ramen of course. Well I'd better hurry, so, bye Sakura! See ya at school!"

He jogged past her and Sakura waved. She laughed silently. Hinata hadn't been kidding about ramen being the only food he ate. Sakura continued walking- but his time she picked up her pace. She was about half-way there.

Not long after this, Sakura heard a commotion ahead of her. She walked over, curious, and began to hear voices. "It's not fair! Your life isn't _that _much more important than mine! Just drop me off and then leave!"

"No can't do. You're younger, so you walk. The fresh air will do you good anyways."

"Come on! It will be a lot faster for me if I get a ride!

"It will also be wasting my time."

Sakura could now make-out two people- one on the side-walk and one in a car. A long car. A…uh oh. Don't tell me that it's…

"Please Itachi? I never ask you for favours!"

"Just shut up, Sasuke. I'm not giving in."

Sakura froze- now only a few feet away from the two raven-haired boys. She studied the new face- Itachi. He had sharp features, like Sasuke, but more mature. He was probably in either his late teens or his early twenties. She jumped. Clasped on the rim of the steering wheel…_were those purple nails?!_ Ew. He was definitely not for her.

"You always have your way!" Sasuke said loudly; a way Sakura had never heard him speak before. "Why can't you…you…" Sasuke turned slowly in Sakura's direction. Sakura's eyes widened. He must have noticed her.

When Sasuke's onyx eyes met her jade ones, he flushed. "Sakura…? Um…what are you doing here?" He mentally slapped himself. _This was the wrong time for that freak to show up. It's like she's everywhere! Arughhh! _ He tried to regain his cool, but he was still panting.

"I…erm…I was…um…w-walking to school," she said, sounding very much like Hinata. She felt a small blush appear on her cheeks because of the uncomfortable silence.

Itachi grinned. "Well, since your friend has shown up, why don't you walk to school with her? Goodbye, Sasuke-dear!" With that he drove down the street at a very high speed.

"No! Wait Itachi!" Sasuke called, but his brother had already zoomed around the corner. He cursed and began walking. Sakura had to jog to keep up with him.

"Hey Sasuke! Nice…um…day?" she said, trying to change the subject. He responded her remark with a glare. Within two minutes, he's met up with his two least favourite people in the world: His brother and his rival.

Sakura remembered her conversation with her mother from the previous night.

_**Flashback:**_

_"Well your father knows them a lot more than I do. You see, his father is your father's boss. He always mentions his brilliant son, Itachi, but I don't remember him ever saying anything about having a second son."_

_**End of Flashback**_

Never said anything about having a second son? Well, why not? Was Sasuke not good enough for his father's standards? How could he not be? He seemed so…perfect! He has a fan-club for crying out loud!

"So that was your brother?"

"…"

"Sasuke?"

"I'd rather not talk about my family."

"But keeping all of your feelings inside will only put more pressure on you! You should be more open."

"Hn."

They walked a little further in silence. In the distance, the school came into view. Only five minutes to go.

"You can't tell anyone this."

Sakura looked up in surprise. So he _was _going to talk to her after all. "Of course I won't."

Sasuke took a breath. "My brother is smart, he runs a business, he's athletic, powerful, has a girlfriend, he's creative, and he's made nearly half of the whole family's income. In other words…he's perfect." He paused. He couldn't believe he was saying this- especially to one of the people he hated.

Sakura smiled. So she had been right all along. "I understand, Sasuke."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do. You feel that you can't beat your brother in anything. You desperately want to get your parents attention, to prove that you aren't just a 'mini-Itachi'. You want to prove that you're _you._ That's why you try so hard to be the best. Isn't that right?"

"Hn."

"Does that mean 'yes' or 'no'?"

"…"

"…"

"Don't tell anyone."

"I never would."

Silence. _Bingo_, Sakura thought. She had just decoded what he had really felt- which sure hadn't been easy.

They approached the front doors of the school. As soon as they entered, they went over to the bulletin board. "The results haven't been posted yet," she said, scanning the board. She glanced at her watch. They still had an hour until school started. "Oh well. I guess I'll go up to my locker. I've got to put my bag away. Are you coming?"

"No. I have a basketball meeting. Can you…um…tell me the soccer results in homeroom?" Sasuke asked, before turning to go.

"Hai, sure thing!" Sakura answered with a smile. She watched him leave around the corner. Then it suddenly struck her that she didn't know how to find her locker. The previous day, she had followed her friends around, and since they all had lockers that were close together, she had no problem finding her locker. Today was different though; she was all alone in a castle of a school. Oh boy. Where was she to begin? Trial and error? That sounded like a good start.

After fifteen minutes worth of dashing down random hallways and looking up random stairways, Sakura decided that her "trial and error" plan wouldn't work. It was time for plan "B".

"Um…excuse me?" Sakura asked a passer-by. "Can you tell me the quickest way to get to…to…oh my gosh, it's you!" Out of all people, Sakura had asked the strange red-haired guy from the Sand with the tattoo on his forehead. He was wearing thick eye-shadow. _He must be gothic_, Sakura thought.

"Yes…it's me...," he said- slightly slurring his words. He was very pale and had and evil aura to him.

"Well…um…I was wondering if you knew how to get to the um…classroom 583B?" she asked lamely.

He looked her up and down- remembering her from the previous night. "Go down hallway 7 and up stairway E…turn left and it will be on your right…"

"Thank you so much! Um…what is your name?" she asked, bowing politely.

"I am Gaara…I hope we meet again…" With that, he drifted off into a random classroom. _And I hope we don't, _Sakura said inwardly while shivering.

She followed his directions (although she still had difficulty finding the hallway and stairway he had mentioned), and she finally found the classroom. "Ok," she muttered, "My locker is somewhere around here…"

"Sakura!" she heard an energetic voice exclaim from behind her. Was it Naruto again? She turned and found no one other than…

"Good morning Kiba! Why are you here so early?"

He grinned. "I was taking my dog, Akamaru, for a walk. Oh yes, can you please not tell anyone about the fact that I have a dog with me? I usually hide it in my coat, but today he's really restless." She nodded and allowed Kiba to guide her to her locker.

"Thanks Kiba."

"No problem. Hey, I'll see you around, ok? I've got a basketball meeting. Are you going to tryout for basketball?"

She shook her head. "Nope, I haven't played basketball before."

"You haven't?! You're crazy, woman! Well, you should come watch us some time! Bye, and don't tell anyone about Akamaru!" She waved and he rounded the corner- out of sight.

Sakura exchanged her coat for her books and dashed off to class, but when she arrived, the door was locked. "Kakashi mustn't be here yet," she said to herself with a sigh. She placed her books down beside the door and retraced her steps back down to the entrance hall, where Ino was posting a list of names.

"Ino, is that the soccer team?" Sakura asked excitedly, as she approached.

Ino turned. "Sadly, yes. It was a major disappointment."

"Disappointment? How?"

Ino sighed. "Well, you scored third- congratulations by the way- and Sasuke scored second. Neji was forth, Naruto was fifth…"

"Well, who was first?" Sakura asked with anticipation. Ino pointed at the top of the list, with a pained expression on her face. Sakura's jaw dropped. "Rock Lee?!" Ino nodded and continued posting up papers.

"He's Gai's favourite student. Gai picks him for everything. Oh well, you made the team, so congratulations!"

Sakura scanned the list. Gaara had scored 8th. "Did everyone make the team?" Sakura asked.

"No," Ino said, "Shino and Shikamaru didn't. Go figure for Shikamaru; he wouldn't lift a finger for the sake of the team. I mean, Choji beat him! He's going to be playing goalie. Well, I guess Shikamaru and I will have to form some sort of fan-club for you guys. I'm sure Sasuke's fangirls will want to join." Ino made a small smile. "I can't believe how lucky you are, Sakura. Your team of three is made up of the two most popular guys in school! I'm stuck with a pig and a…a…"

"They're not that bad, Ino," Sakura said, patting her on the shoulder, "Maybe you just have to give them a chance. They'll probably turn out being better than you think." Ino looked up.

"You mean it?" she asked, clearly trusting Sakura's advice.

"I do," Sakura said with a smile. Ino started crying, and the two of them shared a friendly hug. From here on in, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka were officially best friends.

"Um…am I interrupting something?" asked a voice from behind them. The two girls spun around. Tenten and Hinata stood there- both with grins planted under their noses.

"Tenten! Hinata!" Ino exclaimed, diving at them and pulling them into the hug. Ino was in a really good mood (which can be dangerous). The two of them, who were oblivious to the situation, returned the hugs. "Will you guys come over to my house?" Ino asked with a grin. "After I finish my shift at the flower shop, I'll have the rest of the night off! We can work on our homework a little too."

"All right!" Tenten exclaimed, punching the air.

"G-great idea!" Hinata said happily.

"Sounds awesome!" Sakura said with a smile. Sakura suddenly felt glad that she had moved into this village. She's never had such close friendships in the past.

Sakura, Ino, Tenten and Hinata all walked up to class- and this time, Sakura led the way. When they reached the door, they found that it was wide open. "Hey!" Sakura said, stopping dead in her tracks. "I thought I left my books here!" The place beside the door, where her books had recently lain, was now totally empty. The four of them looked around. Maybe they had been kicked aside? They made their way into class and reserved four desks that were close together for their teams.

The teachers desk was empty and Sakura's books were still no where to be found. "They'll turn up, Sakura," said Choji (who had just entered the class), "Just like the time I had lost my chocolate bar that my grandma gave me. It turned out that I had already eaten it!"

Ino forced a smile after giving Sakura a nervous glance.

The bell was about to ring, and there was still no sign of their teacher. Where was Kakashi, anyway? Just then, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba and Neji came into the room. All four of them looked worn out. They stood before their team-mates (who were already assembled). "How was it?" Tenten asked, who was already standing.

"Tough," Neji replied. "Hey, where is Rock Lee?" Everyone turned around. He was nowhere in sight.

"Oh, speaking of Lee-," Sakura began, but before she could finish, Sasuke slumped down on their desk.

"What were the results?" he asked, still gasping.

She took a breath. Naruto, Neji and Kiba all leaned in to listen. "Well, Rock Lee came in first place," she said- and some of her friends muttered "go figure"- "and then Naruto scored fifth, Neji was forth, I was third, and you were second." She turned away from Sasuke's victorious grin.

Neji took his seat next to Tenten. "I'm not very surprised. I guess the one-on-one matches were the determining factor- accept for Lee of course. Gai and Lee are like father and son."

"And," Tenten added, "we have both of them in our group on Fridays. I bet Gai is going to exclude us." Negi nodded and their conversation continued.

Ino, who was heeding the advice Sakura had given her, was talking with her team-mates. Because she had a knack for talking fast, Choji had a hard time following. Shikamaru on the other hand- being the genius he was- was able to follow along. He didn't speak fast himself, but he was a really quick thinker.

Kiba was trying to talk to Shino, who wasn't willingly responding. "So what kinds of bugs did you collect last night? Will you lend any to me to pull pranks?"

"…" Shino replied. Kiba frowned and changed the topic.

Hinata was talking to the people in the desk in front of her. "S-so Sakura, y-your books are still m-m-missing?"

"Yeah," Sakura replied, "when I returned to the classroom, my books were gone! Maybe someone accidentally picked them up or kicked them aside." Naruto's face was scrunched up in concentration.

"That's not very likely," Sasuke said, scanning the room. When his eyes passed over his fangirls, they melted. Then at last he found two boys in the far corner of the room. "A-ha."

No one noticed Sasuke leave the table. "This morning I had the best ramen ever! The chef mixed the flavours, and I was the first one to try them!"

"T-that's great Naruto!" Hinata said, pretending to be interested. "M-maybe I could g-get one of m-my servants to m-make you s-some ramen. It's r-really g-good!"

"You like ramen?" Naruto asked, turning to face her with wide eyes, "What's your favourite flavour?" Sakura rolled her eyes and smiled. Naruto would never change. That was fine with her, though.

_POW!_

All heads spun around to the far side of the classroom. What the heck could that have been? "How did you like that?" Sasuke said to the two freckly boys. "How about I do it again?"

"N-no! Here it is!" said one of the boys, who was cowering against the wall, supporting a black eye. He handed over three books and a pink pencil case. "Just leave me alone!"

Sasuke smirked, snatched the books out of the boy's hands, and retreated to his table. The freckly boys stared at him in horror. A few kids in the class started laughing at the two beat-up boys. Everyone stared in anticipation.

Sasuke placed the books down in front of Sakura and sat down as if nothing had happened. Everyone continued staring at him with dropped jaws. The fangirls started crying and Ino fainted.

"What was that for Sasuke? You could have gotten in trouble!" Naruto said. Sasuke shrugged.

"And what if I did? I really enjoyed that and it would be worth a punishment," Sasuke replied, cracking his knuckles and causing the people around him to shiver. He turned to Sakura. "What, no thank-you?"

Sakura didn't know what to say. That was pretty harsh…for only a couple of books. "T-t-thank-you," she stuttered.

"Sorry to break it up, but are you ready for class to start?" said a voice from the teacher's desk. Kakashi had finally arrived and was pretending that nothing had gone wrong. The students murmured in agreement and the class began. "Please pull out your assignments from last class. I will be collecting those," Kakashi said. Before handing it in, Naruto winked at Sakura and muttered a small "Thank-you."

**Well, I decided to end the chapter there (I know; it has random endings…) Please keep reading!**


	4. An After School Get Together

**Chapter 4: An After-School Get-Together**

"Ok class, today we will be doing group work. We are about to start a novel-study, so today we will begin our preparations. Let's start with vocabulary. The fifty words to be defined are on the board. Whispering to your team-mates is permitted, but nothing louder. Chop-chop!" Kakashi pulled out his orange book and fell silent.

The sounds of opening binders, rustling paper and groaning could be heard throughout the room. "So," Naruto said quietly, "How about I do the first three questions, Sasuke do the next fifteen, and then Sakura do the rest!"

"No thanks Naruto," Sakura said with a false smile, "because then I would be doing thirty, which would be more than the two of you put together! Let's make it fair: Naruto does sixteen, and Sasuke and I will do seventeen."

"Why do we have to do more?" Sasuke interjected.

"Because we'll probably end up helping Naruto finish half of his anyways." Sasuke had no further argument, so they got to work. Sakura's pen flew down the page and she was the first to finish. Sasuke finished minutes afterward and they exchanged papers while waiting for Naruto to finish. After that, while still waiting for Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura played table-hockey with an eraser and pencils. And after being beaten by Sasuke seven times in a row, Sakura started to worry. "Naruto, are you nearly finished?"

"I'm finally done! Are you ready to trade papers?" Naruto said, putting his paper in front of the two of them.

Sakura looked down at the page. His writing was a lot harder to read than Sasuke's slanted letters and her own loopy letters. The first word was:

_Descry: to see stuff_

Sakura looked up in disbelief. "It said that in the dictionary?"

Naruto grinned. "No. In the dictionary, it said something like, 'the ability of seeing or making out something unclear'. But don't worry, I made it easier to understand by putting it into my own words!" Not wanting to make Naruto feel bad for his 'effort', Sasuke and Sakura decoded Naruto's definitions and tried to forge them onto their own papers. This took the rest of class.

"Don't forget the field-trip on Friday!" Kakashi said as his class departed.

Chemistry was the most boring class Sakura had ever attended. The entire class was spent with Oroachimaru lecturing and preparing them for their lab the following day, and they had to take notes on what he was saying. He gave out several detentions, but luckily, none of them were given to Naruto's gang. The class ended with homework: twenty questions from the text book. Sakura finished by the end of class though.

When the lunch bell rang, everyone dashed out of the room. Sakura followed her friends to their lockers. The cafeteria was really crowded, so they went straight outside and sat in the shade of a tree. Shino went out to collect bugs, Kiba took Akamaru for a walk, Choji brought fifteen dollars to a vending machine, and this left Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru under the tree.

Ino reminded the three girls about their invite that evening. She gave them directions and told them to come at around 5:00pm. "Oh, can we come?" Naruto asked. Neji and Sasuke rolled their eyes, and Shikamaru was staring at the clouds.

"No thanks," Tenten said, "Maybe another time."

"How about at my place?" Neji offered. "Since Hinata and I both live in the same house, we have lots of space, an indoor pool, a game-room, a wide-screen TV, a party-room, servants-,"

"That's nothing," Sasuke said in a bored tone.

"Are you guys _trying _to make us feel bad?" Ino said with a hand on her hip. Sakura nodded with wide eyes.

"Well anyways, how about this Friday? It will be a great way to end the first week of school," Neji said, scanning their expressions for signs of objection. "Ok then, it's settled. We'll hold the party at…um…6:00pm. We can order pizza or something. Sound good?" No objections again. Naruto whooped.

Sakura smiled inwardly. It was only her second day of school and she already had two parties planned.

Math class was as boring as it usually was, but today they didn't have any homework besides studying for the upcoming quiz. "No troubles there," Sakura told herself encouragingly, "This stuff is easy!"

History class, on the other hand, was extremely demanding. Today was the official beginning of the new unit and the work was beginning to pile up. Sakura didn't like history class as much because you couldn't have a "knack" for it; you just had to _know _it. Asuma was about to explain the upcoming project, when an announcement rang through the speaker on his left.

_Will the soccer team please proceed to classroom 861A? Will the soccer team please proceed to classroom 861A? Thank-you._

Asuma sighed. "Ok, is anyone here on the soccer team?" Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, Kiba, Choji and a few others stood. Asuma seemed slightly shocked. "Fine, you may go, but you must return here after school so I can finish the lesson." All of them grumbled angrily and departed the room.

Sakura followed her team-mates to the other end of the school and to the classroom Gai had described. It was more vibrantly decorated than Kakashi's classroom, but there weren't as many windows. Gai was standing at the front of the room with the rest of the team waiting patiently in their seats. Gaara and his friend from the Sand were already there, Sakura noticed.

"Ok team," Gai said, "I needed all of you hear to firstly congratulate you, and secondly to forewarn you about upcoming events. Our first practice will be held on Thursday after school, and if any of you are unable to make it, please tell me as soon as possible. I have your permission forms here that need to be signed and returned, and our first game is on Monday. It will be the grand opening match, so the whole school will be attending. Are there any questions?" No one said a word. "Ok gang, you are free to leave…accept for you three."

He was pointing to Kakashi's team of three. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto exchanged surprised glances. What had they done this time? Once the rest of the team was out of ear-shot, Gai said, "I need to ask for a favour from you three." The bell rang and the three of them shifted with anticipation. "I want you…to make a 'get-well-soon' card for Lee." They nearly fainted like Ino.

"C-card?" Sakura said, dumbfounded. "I'm really sorry, but we have to rush to History class-,"

"I understand, but this will only take a few minutes. It will make Lee really happy." Sakura was about to protest, but Naruto covered her mouth with his hand. "Ok, we'll do it." This earned him surprised glances from his two team-mates. "We'll just have to make it fast."

"No problem. It's the thought that counts!" Gai said with a smile. He set the three of them down at a desk with a large sheet of paper.

**I hope to see you at school soon! Please get better******

**-Sakura Haruno**

**WE NEED YOU ON THE SOCCER FIELD! **

**-NARUTO UZUMAKI! BELIEVE IT!!**

_**Get well soon. I'm already missing your bushy eyebrows.**_

_**-Sasuke Uchiha**_

"Can you not think of anything nicer to say?" Sakura asked with a pout.

Sasuke considered this and pretended to be having difficulty answering her. "Hn," he said with a smirk. "Maybe I should mention that I miss his 'shiny mop'? What do you think?"

"Aw, c'mon Sasuke! We're supposed to be encouraging him!" Naruto said, while crossing out the part about the eyebrows. Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at him and shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

The three of them ran to the other end of the school to continue their unfinished History class. "My mother is going to kill me for being late for two days in a row!" Sakura said while running. "Won't your parents be mad?" she asked, looking up at her friends. Neither of them answered.

Asuma kept them back for twenty long minutes before they were finally dismissed.

"How on earth am I going to get home?" Sakura asked herself angrily, while returning her books to her locker.

"I don't know how I'll get home either," Naruto said, "I'm sure our bus is long gone. It's one of those special busses too, so it only runs twice a day. Maybe we should walk?"

"But I'll be _really _late if I walk! Maybe I should see if my mother can pick me up or something…unless we find a different bus that passes both of our houses." Sakura sighed and started putting on her coat.

"Uh," came a voice from behind them, "I know something that will be passing both of your houses."

"What is it Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Sasuke was standing there with his jacket and bag slung over his shoulder. They both turned to face him. Sasuke turned away.

"Um…my limo," he answered- turning red. This was one of the very few times that Sasuke had ever been nice. What didn't make this moment better was the fact that he was pulled into a double-hug seconds later.

"Oh, thank-you Sasuke!" Sakura said.

"That's my buddy-old-chum!" Naruto said.

"H-hey, what are you doing? Get off!" Sasuke tugged at Sakura's wrist and shoved Naruto into a locker. "Now hurry up or my parents will leave without us."

When they reached the front of the school, Sasuke's limo was waiting for them.

"Finally here, huh Sasuke?" asked a woman who Sakura presumed to be his mother. "I see we're driving Naruto again…and who's this?" His mother immediately changed moods and put on a smile.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. Nice to meet you," Sakura said while sticking out her hand. Sasuke's mother shook it and her smile widened. She looked like a nice woman.

"Haruno, huh? I know your parents well. They're nice folk. Well, hop right in!"

Sakura sat between her two team-mates; one looked as if he wanted to die and the other was smiling into space. Sasuke's mother immediately tried to strike up conversation with Sakura. She asked her about her parents and how she liked the new neighbourhood. She asked her about the school and about herself.

"Mom, please stop it…," Sasuke groaned after his mother had asked Sakura like the fiftieth question.

"Oh shut up," his mother snapped, "It's not very often that you ever bring a girl anywhere with you, so I wanted to get to know her a little." Sakura was taken aback by his mother's sudden 'snappiness'. Sasuke's eyes widened, but that shut him up. Sakura came to his defence.

"I'm sure that all of the girls in our school would love to be in my shoes," Sakura said suddenly. Naruto was snapped out of his day-dreams and Sasuke looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"What do you mean?" his mother asked politely.

"Well…Sasuke _is _the most popular guy in school. All of the girls are crazy about him. Well, that's obviously because he's so smart and athletic." She felt Sasuke shift but chose to ignore him.

"Is he?" Sasuke's mother asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sasuke, you never told me that you were smart or athletic!" Sasuke looked up with surprise. Sakura smiled. Naruto had no comment and watched the whole scene as if it were a movie.

"You bet he is! If his fangirls knew I was here, they would probably try to kill me!" Sakura chuckled. It was working…

"Sasuke, you never tell me anything! Since when did you get…so…," his mother started. Sasuke didn't know what to say. His mother was…_praising_ him!

"I'm sorry…but this is my house," Sakura said suddenly, breaking the awkward silence. They pulled into her driveway.

"Yeah, I'll walk you to your door!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Sure thing! Thank-you, Mrs. Uchiha!" Sakura said, while following Naruto out the door.

"I'll come," Sasuke said quickly. When the three left the car, Mrs. Uchiha was left to ponder over what Sakura had told her.

"She seems like a nice girl," his mother was left thinking.

Just before Sakura reached her door, Naruto gave her a friendly hug. "See you tomorrow, Sakura!" She smiled and was about to turn again.

"Sakura!" Sasuke called, walking past Naruto. "Thank-you…for…whatever it was you did…I mean…," he whispered into her ear.

"No problem, Sasuke! Anytime, anytime. Well, any-who, I've got to go meet Ino and the others! See you tomorrow!"

"_Wait Sakura_!" Naruto called with a trace of anger in his voice. "I want you to say hi to Hinata for me!"

"Um…no problem, Naruto," Sakura said, while turning and nearly colliding with someone behind her. "Mother!"

"Sakura, I was worried about you! Where were…who are…" Her eyes met the two boys standing on either side of her. "Are you Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha?!" she gasped. They nodded unsurely and Sakura's mother squealed.

"Wow! It's nice to meet you! Oh, is that your mother?" she asked Sasuke, looking over his shoulder. She ran down the drive-way as Sasuke's mother came out. They began gabbing away like old friends. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto sweat-dropped.

"Why don't you show your friends around the house, Sakura?" her mother called.

"I've only got half an hour mom! I have to meet my other friends!"

"That's ok! Go ahead!" Sakura sighed and led Naruto and Sasuke into her house.

"I know it's small, but it's all we've got," she said when they entered. Naruto and Sasuke looked around.

"It may be small," Naruto said as Sakura led them to the kitchen, "but it's also really comfortable. I don't think they make houses like this anymore."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What he means is that you can tell that a family is living here." Sakura considered this. They may be right…she actually had something to be proud of.

"Let's go upstairs," she said when she heard her mother and Sasuke's mother approaching the door. Without hesitation, the three of them ran up the stairs. Sakura closed the door behind her when they were all inside.

"Wow, Sakura! It's so tidy!" Naruto said when he saw Sakura's room. She smiled. Sasuke looked around impressively too. Naruto and Sasuke sat on the bed and faced her, who sat on her chair.

"So," she said awkwardly. It was strange seeing the two of them in her house. "I wonder what our field-trip on Friday will be?"

"I overheard Kakashi and my old teacher Iruka discussing it," said Naruto. "They said that they wanted to keep it simple so that we would have some time to get to know each other. I don't think it will really make a difference for us, though, since we already know each other quiet well."

Sakura nodded. "Hey Sasuke," Naruto started, "What did you mean when you thanked Sakura? What did you guys do?"

Sasuke clearly didn't want to answer, so he looked up at Sakura as if she was going to save him. "She complimented me in front of my mother," Sasuke said, making Naruto fall silent.

"Oh, it's the whole impressing-of-the-parents-so-you-can-live-up-to-your-brother's-standards thing?" Naruto asked in a bored tone. Sasuke rolled his eyes and nodded.

"What about your parents?" Sakura asked Naruto. The two boys froze and exchanged glances.

Naruto took a deep breath and said, "I don't know them."

Sakura stood up and strode over to the bed. "Are you kidding?! I'm…s-so sorry!" She hugged Naruto, hoping that this apology would suffice. "I'm sorry Naruto! I didn't know! I shouldn't have brought it up! I-,"

"It's ok, Sakura," he said while hugging her back, "I've gotten over it."

Sakura let go of Naruto and patted him on the head. She saw Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. He had gone white and was watching her with wide eyes.

"Sasuke," she said slowly, "are you jealous?"

His eyebrows shot up. "Of what? There is no reason for me to be jealous. An Uchiha _never _gets jealous." His cheeks had gone pink and he turned away.

Sakura and Naruto exchanged smirks. "Oh no?" Sakura said, sitting on the bed. "Are you sure?"

"Hn."

"That sounds good enough for me," she said with a smile. Sakura absent-mindedly glanced down at her watch. "It's 4:50. 4:50?! I have to go meet Ino, Tenten and Hinata! Bye guys!"

"Say hi to Hinata for me!" Naruto called again. Sasuke said nothing as she dashed out of the room.

"Bye mom! I'll be back soon!" Sakura called as she dashed out the door. Her mother and Sasuke's mother were still gabbing away at the kitchen table. They both gave her a wave.

Remembering Ino's directions, Sakura made her way to Ino's house. It was about fifteen minutes away and when she arrived, Tenten and Hinata were already there.

"Hey guys!" Sakura called as she made her way up the stairs of the flower shop into Ino's house.

"Sakura!" Ino called, and she and Tenten dragged her up the stairs.

They all plopped down on two couches in Ino's living room. "So Sakura," Tenten said, "welcome to the gang. By the way, what happened after school? Why did Gai need you?"

Sakura held in her laugh. "He wanted Naruto, Sasuke and I to make a card for Lee." The others started to laugh too. "Oh, and he also wanted to tell us about the soccer practice on Thursday, and our game next Monday."

"Hey Sakura, I was talking to Shikamaru, and we decided that it would be a good idea to make some sort of club. We could come to your soccer games and sell things and make money for our school! Shikamaru is really good with technology so he could probably make personal profiles about the players, along with trading cards, hats, t-shirts, personalized water-bottles, autographed posters, banners, flags, action figures…"

"Shikamaru can do all that?!" Sakura asked, amazed.

Ino smiled fondly. "You bet he can! You know, Sakura, I think that your advise from before is really useful. I mean, Shikamaru isn't that bad. Now that I think about it, he's kind of cute. He's a lot more open than Sasuke, that's for sure."

"And w-we'll join t-too!" Hinata grinned. Tenten walked in with a plate of treats.

"And I'll be the team mascot! I'm pretty good at designing things. As soon as you come up with a team name, tell me!" Tenten exclaimed, setting the tray down on the coffee table.

"Wow," Sakura said while sinking back into couch, "you guys are awesome!"

"We know," Ino said proudly and while smirking. "So how are you getting along with your team?" Sakura stood up suddenly.

"Oh my gosh, they're in my room!" she said, putting her hands on her head. "I left them _alone_ in my _room_!"

The three others looked at her confusedly. "What's in your room?" Tenten asked.

"My team! I left Naruto and Sasuke in my room!" Ino, Tenten and Hinata's jaws dropped as Sakura began pacing.

"What-were-they-doing-in-your-room-oh-my-gosh-how-could-you-just-leave-them-tell-me-now-or-die!" Ino spluttered.

Sakura took a deep breath and spoke nearly as quickly as Ino had, "Sasuke-gave-us-a-ride-home-in-his-limo-and-my-mother-invited-my-team-mates-and-his-mother-inside-and-they-were-talking-and-I-left-Naruto-and-Sasuke-in-my-room! If they touch anything, I'll kill them! Oh, and Hinata, Naruto says 'hi'"

"H-he d-does? W-w-w-wow!" Hinata said, turning scarlet. Tenten and Ino were still staring at Sakura with confusion.

"Sasuke let you sit in his car? Do you _know _how lucky you are?" Ino asked. "I would have given anything to be in his car awhile ago! You met his mother? Did she like you?"

"Yeah, she seemed like a nice lady too. But you're missing the point! I don't fully trust the two of them yet! I can't stand the thought of them touching _my _stuff!" Sakura screeched, putting her head in her hands.

"Sakura," Tenten said while putting her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "We keep no secrets when were together. That's the number one rule of our friendship. The only way we can help each other through things, is if we know what's going on! Here, I'll tell you guy's straight forward:" she gulped and turned red, "I like Neji Hyuuga. Are you happy?"

All of them stared and then clapped and patted Tenten on the shoulder. "G-good j-j-ob Tenten! Th-that was v-very well said! N-now it's m-m-my turn: I like N-N-n-n-n-,"

"Naruto?" the three of them said in unison.

"How d-did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Ino said with a smile. "Your turn, Sakura! I'll admit that I like Sasuke and Shikamaru. What about you?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "How can you already expect me to like someone after two days? I'll assure you now that it's going to take awhile for me."

"Just don't forget to tell us when the time comes!" Tenten said, flailing a warning finger in Sakura's face.

"You bet!" Sakura said with a smile. "Anyways, do you know what your field-trip is on Friday?"

"I heard that we're going to go for a hike," Ino grunted. "That sounds like a _lot _of fun."

"I-I'm not too s-sure, but I heard that w-we're going to a theme p-park in a few weeks! T-that will be so fun!" Hinata said.

"I think that Gai mentioned something about a football game," Tenten said thoughtfully. "I'm not too sure though. But that's a good thing; I love sports!"

"I wonder what Kakashi's got in store for us," Sakura said with a smile. "I hope I'm not sick of my team-mates by then. You know, Hinata, I wouldn't mind switching teams."

"N-no, Sakura, w-we're not a-allowed. Besides, K-Kiba and S-Shino are r-really nice!"

"You'll learn to like your team-mates as you get to know them," Tenten said with a smile. "I certainly like one of _mine_. Eventually, I'll probably learn to appreciate Lee too!" She laughed nervously at the thought.

The four of them continued their gabbing for another half-hour. Then Sakura checked her watch when she saw the sky was getting dark. "Oh no, I'd better let you go! I need to walk home, and I've still got a lot of homework!"

"Me too," the others said. After a goodbye, everyone went home.

When Sakura saw that the limo was still in her drive-way, she approached her door with caution. They were still in there? For a whole hour? Sakura gulped and paused before the door.

"Shoot it! Shoot it! What was that? Come on! Just shoot it in!"

"These people really suck."

"Why can't you be more positive?"

"Hn."

"I'm home!" Sakura called, walking through the door and kicking off her shoes. As soon as she entered, a wonderful aroma met her nostrils. "Whoa…what's for dinner?" She followed her nose into the living room, where Sasuke and Naruto were sitting on the couch and watching hockey. Sakura and Sasuke's mother were in the kitchen, setting food on the table. "Boy, I'm hungry!" Sakura exclaimed, plopping down on a chair.

"How was it, Sakura?" her mother called.

"Great," Sakura said, putting a hand to her growling stomach. "We talked."

Naruto tore his eyes from the screen. "Hey Sakura! You may have enjoyed it, but it's not going to be nearly as fun as the party on Friday at Neji and Hinata's house. I'm so excited!"

Sakura smiled. "Yeah, that's gonna be fun." Then her mother set a tray down in front of her. "Oh! Thank-you mother! I was so hungry!" She waited no longer and took a small bite- savouring the flavour. Naruto and Sasuke also began eating.

When their bellies were full, Sakura leaned back into the chair and snuggled a pillow. She was tired…

"Sakura," Sasuke's voice called from the other end of the room.

"Hm?" She opened one eye.

"Have you even started your homework?"

"It's ok," Naruto said, "you can copy mine."

Sakura shot up and gasped. She had completely forgotten! "Thanks for the offer, Naruto, but I think I can handle it." Sakura ran to her room and brought down her bag. She placed her books down on the coffee table and began with the Chemistry questions.

She sped through them as if they weren't even there. Naruto watched her with awe and Sasuke watched her out of the corner of his eye- pretending to be watching the game. "Done!" Sakura said, pushing the Chemistry aside. She then started the History- this time having more difficulty.

Sasuke, who was much quicker than her when it came to History, occasionally muttered answers to her. They couldn't tell if Sasuke was being nice or was trying to prove that he was better. Naruto had nothing to say.

When she had at last finished, she pushed the two boys aside and sat between them. She leaned back and sighed. So far, the second day of school felt like a week. She still had three long days to go until the weekend. Clearly Naruto had felt the same way, because moments later, his snoring could be heard throughout the room.

"Did you guys have a chance to finish your homework?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah," Sasuke answered, leaning against the armrest and closing his eyes. Sakura looked up at the two ladies curiously. They were _still _talking. Of course Sakura enjoyed talking herself, but they had been gabbing away for nearly three hours!

"So what do you guys want to do?" she asked, but was given no reply. She turned to her two team-mates, but found them to be sleeping. She rolled her eyes and stood up. She went into the kitchen.

"Hey mom," she said in a lazy tone.

The two ladies looked up. "Hey Sakura, where are the others? Did you leave them somewhere?" her mother asked.

"I left them in the living room. They fell asleep right in the middle of a conversation," Sakura replied, trudging over to the fridge for a glass of water.

Sasuke's mother stood up. "Fell asleep?!" she said abruptly, making the two Haruno's turn. "They never sleep at home! What would make them fall asleep _here_?!" Sasuke's mother walked straight into the living room and looked down at her son and his best friend. She kneeled down and looked at them suspiciously.

"What do you mean they don't sleep?" Mrs. Haruno asked.

Sakura appeared from behind her with her cup of water.

"At home, Sasuke is so restless and he hardly sleeps a wink. Since Naruto lost his parents, he's acted the same way. I don't think this is normal. I'd better wake them up."

"Let me do the honours," Sakura said with and evil grin, stepping forward with her water-glass in her hand.

_**Naruto's Dream:**_

_He was running at full speed in a valley of ramen. Out of nowhere, a hockey player fell from the sky. He dodged it and continued running. Ahead of him, he saw Sasuke and Sakura, bound by the noodles. The ramen began moving, tightening on them. Sakura screamed and Sasuke winced. Naruto stopped before them. He now had to make a difficult decision: Ramen or friends. "What should I do, Hinata?" Naruto asked. Hinata appeared out of nowhere._

_"Which i-is more important to you?" she asked calmly. _

_Naruto didn't know how to answer. Ramen was his pride and joy…but his friends were…_

_Before Naruto had a chance to make a decision, something cold and wet splattered all over his face…_

_**Sasuke's Dream:**_

_Sasuke was playing soccer with his brother on a high building. "You're pathetic, foolish, little brother! You are a disgrace to our clan!" Itachi said while dancing around him with the soccer-ball. Sasuke chose to ignore his remark and tried to steal the ball… but he couldn't. "Father and mother are embarrassed to have you as a son. You always mess everything up-," but Itachi was cut off when Sasuke lunged at him._

_Sasuke did everything he could to take his brother down, but all of his attacks were used in vain. Consequently, Itachi had no problem beating Sasuke until his eyes were streaming. Itachi gave him a hard push towards the edge of the building. Caught off guard, Sasuke's feet slipped and he began to fall…falling…falling…but someone grabbed his wrist._

_Sasuke looked up through his watery eyes. The sun was bright so he wasn't really able to make out who it was… "Saku-?" he began, but then from out of no where, something cold and wet splattered all over his face._

Sakura's laughter rang through the room as Naruto and Sasuke sat bolt-upright, whipping the water from their faces. They looked up and immediately determined what had happened. Sakura holding and empty glass and their faces were drenched. This could only mean one thing…

"Sakura!" the two of them yelled at once. Sakura's laughing ceased but she was still smiling widely. Before she was ready to defend herself, she was pulled onto the couch by either arm, and was forced to join a playful wrestling match. Sakura dodged all of their playful punches and gave them a few of her own.

The match ended with Sasuke lying on the bottom, Naruto lying across his stomach with his head hanging off the couch, and Sakura, who was inline with Sasuke, but on Naruto's back. Sakura's feet were flailing, and her arms would be flailing too of Sasuke and Naruto weren't holding them. Naruto was also holding Sasuke's arm. They all looked at each other and started laughing.

Mrs. Haruno and Mrs. Uchiha were sweat-dropping big time. "Er…are you finished?" Sakura's mother said. The three of them looked up. When they noticed the two mothers watching, the three of them broke apart and sat on the couch as if nothing had happened.

"Yep," Sakura said with a small, nervous smile. Oh boy.

"Well it's time to go," Sasuke's mother said, "since you're already tired."

"Not anymore," Naruto said, looking at Sakura. Sakura smiled innocently.

"You can see each other tomorrow," Mrs. Uchiha said with finality in her tone. She walked to the door with Naruto and Sasuke on her heels. Sakura and Mrs. Haruno reached the door as they began walking down the driveway.

"Bye!" Sakura called, and was given two waves in return. Her friends had been right: Once she got to know her team-mates, they would seem better. Sakura went upstairs to get ready for bed. She fell asleep almost immediately and began to dream.

_**Sakura's Dream:**_

_Sakura was writing a math test, but for some strange reason, she didn't know any of the answers. She panicked and strained her memory for the formula, but she couldn't remember anything. Out of desperation, Sakura took a logical guess, but it still didn't look right. She was about to raise her hand to give up…when her dream changed._

_Sakura was running through a dark hallway with no visible end. Her feet carried her forward through the murkiness. Her heart was pounding. She was all alone and she was afraid. She met a door and she went through it- only to find another series of doors on the other side. She chose the fifth door and she went through it to find…_

Naruto arrived home to his small, clattered apartment. He didn't have trouble falling asleep.

_**Naruto's Dream:**_

_Naruto was sitting with his favourite teacher, Iruka, who was having ramen with him. When it was time to pay, Naruto reached into his pocket, and found nothing. "W-wait!" Naruto cried. "I had money in here a minute ago! Just give me a minute!"_

_"You aren't leaving until you pay!" the chef said angrily. Naruto fumbled in his pocket and was still out of luck. He decided to make a run for it and he found himself in…_

_Naruto was running through a dark hallway with no visible end. His feet carried him forward through the murkiness. His heart was pounding. He was all alone and he was afraid. He met a door and he went through it- only to find another series of doors on the other side. He chose the fourth door and he went through it to find…_

When he finally arrived at his mansion, Sasuke took a ten minute walk to his room. He fell asleep shortly afterward.

_**Sasuke's Dream:**_

_Sasuke was standing in the middle of the school hallway. He heard a clatter from behind him and he turned to find a group of about sixty fangirls. He nearly chocked and he made a run for it. He dashed down hallways and up flights of stairs, but could still hear the girls behind him. Where were Naruto and Sakura when you needed them? As Sasuke ran further, the hallways began to change._

_Sasuke was running through a dark hallway with no visible end. His feet carried him forward through the murkiness. His heart was pounding. He was all alone and he was afraid. He met a door and he went through it- only to find another series of doors on the other side. He chose the sixth door and he went through it to find…_

**ANOTHER DAY IS DONE! I hope you're enjoying the story. I already have planned out the next few days, but if you have any suggestions, don't be afraid to give them to me. I might be able to do bonus chapters at the end using all of the suggestions given to me. The story will only get more exciting as we go…it will also become action-packed! Please keep reading! XD XD XD !**


	5. A Disastrous Lab

**Chapter 5: A Disastrous Lab **

Sakura awoke with a start. She had dreamt strange dreams in the past, but this one seemed different than the others. After pondering over it for a few minutes, she shook it off and started getting ready for school.

Today would be Sakura's second day taking the bus to school. She knew what was in store for her though, since she had taken it home on the first day. She knew she would see Naruto, Neji and Hinata, but now she may recognize even more people.

Her stop was crowded as it had been the previous time and to her surprise, she still didn't know anyone there. She kept her distance from the rest of the bunch and filed onto the bus after it halted with a screech. She took a seat and waited for them to pass the Hyuuga mansion. When at last they did, Sakura could see Neji dragging Hinata out the door.

"S-Sakura! Good-morning!" Hinata said, taking a seat next to her. Neji sat in front of her.

"Hey," Sakura replied sleepily. Before either of them were ready for it, Negi gave them a play-by-play of what was going to happen at the party on Friday. Sakura listened half-heartedly and Hinata looked a little bored. Sakura assumed that Neji had told her this information before.

"That's enough, you organized-freak," said a voice from behind them.

"N-N-Naruto!" Hinata gasped. Sakura smirked, remembering Hinata's confession from the previous night.

"G'mornin'," he yawned, taking a seat next to Neji. "I kept waking up in the middle of the night," Naruto said with a sigh.

"Me too," Sakura said, stretching her arms. "I had a really strange dream."

"Same."

Silence.

"Well, as I was saying," Neji butt in, "do you think that we should have someone come play music for us, or should we do karaoke? I also thought over the dinner. Should we still have pizza, or should we go to a restaurant or something? What time should it be until? Will it be a sleep-over? If it is a sleep-over, should we all get our own rooms, or should we all stay in the party room? Do rent comedy movies or action movies? How about-," Neji went on and on with every possible detail he could think of. Naruto nearly fell asleep and there was drool hanging from the side of his mouth.

"Uh, Neji?" Sakura cut in at last. "It's really up to you."

"But we _have _to do karaoke. I'll get Sasuke to sing 'Barbie Girl' or something like that," Naruto said with an evil grin. Picturing it was enough to make the others shiver.

"A sleep-over would be fun," Sakura said thoughtfully. "But not to interrupt any of your other plans, Neji, but I think it would be better for us to have our own rooms too. I mean, some of us will be girls and we like having privacy."

Hinata nodded. "I never thought of that," Neji said, pulling a notepad from his pocket and jotting things down. Naruto rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded very much like, "Organized freak."

The four of them entered the classroom. Kakashi wasn't there yet, for his desk lacked the usual clattered papers and orange book. They sat at their usual tables. Neji and Hinata quarrelled occasionally, but Sakura and Naruto were lacking their usual over-the-top amounts of energy. This was probably due to their sleep-shortage.

Tenten trotted into the room next and literally dived into her seat, making Neji jump. "Whoa! What was that for?!" Neji gasped.

"Oh sorry! I'm really hyper this morning…I had three chocolate bars for breakfast!" Her chair was shaking.

"Hm, so you like chocolate bars, huh?" Neji asked. "Maybe we should have some at the party?" Naruto put his head in his hands as Neji asked Tenten more questions about the party.

Just then, an exhausted-looking raven-haired boy nearly collapsed into the room, along with the majority of the girls in the class. "G-Get off of me!" he said angrily, giving one of the girls a hard shove. In result, she squealed.

"Sasuke touched me! _Touched _me! SHRIEK!" she said, clinging to his arm.

"Oh for the love of…," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes and shaking her away. The fangirls followed him to his desk. He sat down forcefully between Naruto and Sakura. Their heads jerked up from their day-dreams. Sasuke, on the other hand, slumped down onto the desk and rested his hands in his arms. "I can't believe it…They caught up to me!" Even someone as slow as Naruto was able to determine that he was talking about the fangirls.

"Why don't you tell them to go away?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke shook his head and pointed to the bunch of squealing girls before them. "What do you think I've been doing? I hate fangirls!"

At this, some of the girls shrieked. "He was talking about us! He _knows _us! SCREECH!" The three of them covered their ears.

"On top of that, I'm exhausted. I hardly slept last night."

"Me too."

"Same here."

"I had a strange dream."

"Ditto."

"Dattebayo."

The three of them eyed each other curiously. "What dream?" Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura asked at the same time. They all jumped back. "Stop that!" they all said together. At this, they all backed away from each other, slightly nervous.

The door burst open, causing many heads to turn. "I'M HERE!" exclaimed an all-too-familiar voice. Rock Lee scanned the room as if he were expecting cheers. When his eyes met squad 7's table, he grinned and walked over. He stared at the three of them with wide eyes, making them wince.

"H-hi Lee," Sakura said nervously and giving him a small wave.

With a sudden force, Rock Lee put a hand over his heart. The three of them jumped. "Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke…I just wanted to say…_sniff sniff_…that I thank you with all of my heart for the touching card! The reason I am standing here today is because of the encouragement you gave me! Thank you very much!"

It took a couple of minutes for them to remember what Lee was talking about. _Oh yeah, _Sakura thought with a twitch, _Gai forced us to make a 'get-well-soon' card for him yesterday… _"Your welcome Lee," Sakura answered slowly. "It was…um…no problem!" _Well, we were really late getting home because of it, but still…_

Lee wiped back a tear. Sakura and Naruto exchanged nervous glances. This guy was an emotional wreck! Sasuke put his head in his hands. _It's going to be a long year, _he thought with a sigh.

"Oh Sakura!" Lee cried, diving across the table at her. "I thank you a million times!" Sakura nearly fell out of her chair with fear. She looked up at him. He was now sitting on the table with tears in his eyes. "I will see you again." Lee dived off of the table and landed with a thud on his own table, where Neji and Tenten were discussing the party.

"Is he usually like that?!" Sakura asked. She had really been shaken up by that dramatic moment.

Naruto folded his arms. "Actually yes, he is. He's usually bullied because of his insane, 'in-your-face' personality. If he wanted something, he'd give an arm and a leg for it!"

"I don't think that's the only reason he's bullied," Sasuke sniggered. "With those bushy eyebrows, shiny mop and jumpsuit, he'd be the perfect victim."

Sakura looked at Lee out of the corner of her eye. "Aw, the poor guy," she said sadly. Sasuke gave her a disgusted look. How could anyone sympathize with such a freak? Sakura was _that_ soft-hearted?

"Sorry I'm late! I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life," said a familiar voice from the front of the room. With his mask and orange book, stood no one other than their teacher: Kakashi Hatake. Everyone sweat-dropped at his excuse, but played along with it anyways. "As I mentioned yesterday, today we are starting our novel-study. I will now invite each of you to come to the front of the room to pick up the book you will be reading."

Everyone filed up to his desk and one-by-one, they grabbed a book. Naruto stared down at it in disbelief. "Hey, isn't this the book that Kakashi's always reading?" Sakura glanced down at her own book. Indeed it was the orange book their teacher had been reading previously.

"I…think it is," she said slowly, examining it with caution. Naruto automatically flushed. "Is something wrong, Naruto?" Naruto had gone white and his hand was shaking. Without giving Sakura an answer, he dashed up to the front of the room.

"Kakashi!" he yelled (rather informally). "We can't read this! We'll be scarred for life! This book is rated 18+!"

Kakashi smiled from under the mask. "It will be fine, as long as you don't tell your parents." Many students exchanged nervous glances. When the students arrived back at their desks, they dropped the book down on their desks with disgust. 18+? What was Kakashi thinking? What if he got in trouble?

"Ok," Kakashi said, "I will now ask you to turn to page 5 so we can begin the first chapter." The sounds of flipping pages could be heard throughout the room. "I would like the first chapter to be read by the end of class. When you are finished, I will give you the essay questions. Enjoy!" With that, Kakashi leaned back in his chair and began to read his own copy of the book.

Sakura daringly flipped to the front cover. "Make-Out Paradise," it read. Sakura shuddered. This was going to be a long class.

The class departed the English room with weak knees. They were now officially scarred for life. The lab was gloomier than usual. At each of their tables were tools and supplies piled up for the lab they would be doing. "The instructions are on the desk," Oroachimaru hissed, "and if you break anything, you will stay after class." Sasuke and Sakura exchanged nervous glances. With Naruto in their group, something was bound to shatter.

"This looks easy!" Naruto exclaimed. "Let's go!" The other two also read the instructions and got to work.

Sakura had to admit that this wasn't too hard. It was simply following instructions and doing them right. Most of the class, Sakura had been keeping an eye on Naruto and making sure that he did his part. Sasuke was zooming through his part so that he was finished well before the other two. Oroachimaru was keeping a close watch on the three of them- trying to catch their mistakes.

The only team who was working more constructively was Ino's team. Shikamaru didn't even need instructions. He whizzed through the steps as if he did them every day! Ino and Choji cheered him on.

Part of the lab required a hot-plate. "I'll get it!" Naruto exclaimed, reaching into the cupboard.

"Watch it Naruto," Sakura said sternly and Naruto grabbed it.

"It's stuck," Naruto said, trying to pull it out from a pile of other supplies.

"If you break it you-," but Sasuke was stopped when Naruto pulled his arm back with a jerk. SMACK! The class turned to look at the scene at the front of the room. Sakura gasped and Naruto rubbed his elbow. Sasuke's hand immediately reached for his nose. He slowly took his hand away and looked down at it. His sleeve was now blood-stained and his face was sopping. The class was silent (accept when Ino's head hit her table when she fainted). "Nar-u-to…," Sasuke growled, narrowing his eyes.

Sasuke was about to lunge at his blonde team-mate, when Oroachimaru said, "Go clean it up, Uchiha. The nurses' office is on down the hall." Hiding his face with embarrassment, Sasuke whipped around and ran out of the room. Naruto looked crest-fallen for a moment…but then he smiled.

"Sasuke's tough. He'll probably heal in about five minutes." But Naruto was wrong. After ten minutes, Sasuke still hadn't returned. Sakura and Naruto continued on with the lab, but this time at a slower pace. Sakura was smart, but this subject wasn't her strength. Naruto was no help at all.

"The hot-plate is nice and hot!" he exclaimed. He turned to Sakura. "Well…it seems like it's just you and m-…m….arughhh!"

"Naruto?!" Sakura yelled, standing up. Naruto stood up too, his eyes streaming. The class spun around again. Naruto raised his hand, revealing a nasty red burn. "You have to be careful, Naruto! The hot-plate _is _hot! Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah," he stuttered.

"N-N-Naruto!" Hinata cried, covering her mouth with her hands.

Oroachimaru smirked. This class was getting interesting. Wordlessly, he pointed to the door. Naruto followed Sasuke's lead and ran to the nurses' office.

Sakura continued on with the lab once the class had settled down. She now had to finish all three parts of the assignment in the remaining time of the class! Being the quick thinker she was, Sakura didn't waste any time. Although she was having difficulty, she managed to write up the lab and turn it in at the end. Oroachimaru dismissed her with a cold stare.

**Please keep reading!**


	6. The New Team Name

**Chapter 6: The New Team Name**

Sakura and the gang (accept for Naruto and Sasuke), sat in the shade of a large tree. Sakura, Ino, Tenten and Hinata sat together and gabbed away, while Neji talked to Shikamaru. Choji went off to buy his lunch, Shino went out to catch butterflies (strange, I know), Kiba took Akamaru for a walk and Rock Lee was off to run laps.

Shikamaru lazily answered Negi's interview questions for the party on Friday. Ino talked up a storm about how smart Shikamaru was, Sakura and Tenten listened, and Hinata was unusually quiet. "…I mean, I didn't even have time to finish _reading _the question and Shikamaru had already finished writing the answer! It was amazing! Anyways…"

"Hey!" called an all-too-familiar voice from behind them.

Hinata's eyes went as wide as saucers. "N-N-N-," she began, but Sakura finished it for her.

"Naruto! How's your hand?" Sakura stood up and examined it. Naruto held it up for the gang to see. The burn wasn't visible because it was covered with a bandage that was holding ice to it.

Naruto smiled weakly. "I'll live. The most painful part is I'll have to let you and Sasuke do all the writing in Math and History class." He pretended to be in pain. Sakura rolled her eyes as Hinata approached him with caution.

"I-it's nothing s-serious, is it?" she asked. When Naruto faced her, she went scarlet.

"Nah, I just grazed my palm against the burner. If I would have pressed down, it would have been really serious. Thank you for your concern, Hinata." At the sound of her name, Hinata went so red that she nearly looked purple. "I don't remember asking you this before, but do you like ramen, Hinata?"

She seemed to be caught off guard at this random question. Sakura was impressed when she started to speak because she looked like she was ready to pass out. "Actually, I-I love it! I just c-can't find the right brand."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "You like ramen? Really?! Well, I know all of the best brands. Maybe we should have some sometime." Hinata forgot to breathe.

"Bring some to the party!" called Neji's random voice. The others murmured in agreement.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura said suddenly. "How's Sasuke's nose? Is it any better?"

To the others surprise, Naruto grinned. "It's stopped bleeding, but I think that the nurse is making sure that it's not broken. I hit him pretty hard."

"And why do you look so happy?" Tenten asked.

Naruto's grin widened a little more. "To tell you guys the truth, I feel no regret." Many jaws dropped. "Of course, I hope that it's not broken; he's my best friend, after all; but seeing his lose his cool is kind of funny. He's always so perfect, beating me in everything. So the few moments that he's _not _so perfect, I like to make a big deal out of them." Neji smirked in agreement. Shikamaru's lips curved into a small smile and Tenten, Ino and Hinata considered this. But Sakura, on the other hand, was not amused.

She remembered her conversation with Sasuke from the previous morning, when he told her about the true reason behind his perfection. Sasuke was so determined to prove to his parents that he could keep up with his brother, that he was willing to push himself to his limits in everything. But then Sasuke's voice rang through her ears: _Don't tell anyone this. _Sakura was a talkative kind of person, but she would never break a promise.

"C'mon, Naruto, leave him alone," she said before she could stop herself, earning her a few surprised glances. "He's just really determined, that's all. I actually don't find it that funny."

"Uh, Sakura?" Ino said suddenly.

"I mean," Sakura continued, "what if he's seriously hurt? Sasuke may be cold on the outside, but I think-."

"Sakura," Ino said, a little more sternly. She pointed over Sakura's head and mouthed, "Behind you!" Sakura tilted her head in confusion. Behind her? She turned. What could be-?

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened (picture anime style; O.O). She was drowning in pools of onyx. That could only mean one thing… "Well, well," said a smirking, raven-haired Uchiha. His eyes were slightly glossy, and his arms were folded across his chest. As Sakura's silence grew longer, his smirk grew wider. A few of his passing fangirls fainted at this expression plastered on his face. Even Sakura had to admit that he looked…he looked… Well let's put it this way: the colour in her face nearly blended in with her hair.

She began to mutter words of apology, but Sasuke silenced her with a dismissive wave of the hand. His smirk hadn't faded. Ino, along with the others, were flabbergasted. "He's _never _looked at me like that!" she whispered to Tenten. Sasuke walked over to the tree and leaned against it as if he had been with them all along.

"How's your face?" Naruto asked gruffly, and slightly apologetically. He had probably taken Sakura's words into consideration.

"Not broken," he said bluntly. Everyone sighed with relief. Shikamaru returned to his cloud-gazing, and Neji took his note-pad out of his pocket.

Sakura was standing there, staring into space. This was really bad for her reputation. Now she probably looked like a fangirl! This was horrible! She had even _blushed_! She was officially screwed. _Damn those cursed good looks of his! _her inner voice yelled.

The remainder of lunch had been a little more awkward than before. The four girls were deep into conversation. Tenten talked about the plans she had for the weekend, Ino was discussing the soccer team and how they needed a team name, and Sakura and Hinata gave suggestions. "Maybe t-the name s-should relate to t-the name of the school," Hinata suggested.

"Or maybe we could use the name of a famous team," Sakura wondered aloud.

Ino took these into consideration. "Hey, Shikamaru," she said, "what should the name of the team be?" He looked at her from the corner of her eye. He shrugged.

"I know! I know!" cried Naruto. Everyone looked up him. "I think we should call the team _The Ramen_! Doesn't that sound cool?" Everyone sweat-dropped.

"It doesn't sound very intimidating," Tenten said with a sigh.

"No offence, Naruto, but we'd probably be laughed at," Neji added.

Naruto screwed up his face in concentration. As if a light-bulb turned on in his head, Naruto perked up. "Now I _really_ know! How about _The Ninja's_! That sounds pretty cool!"

Ino shook her head. "No Naruto, we can't…hold on!" She turned to Neji. "Write this down!" she ordered. Tenten gave her a glare as if to say, _No one bosses Neji around! _Neji obeyed with surprise. "The Ninja's: logo; a kunai, uniform; includes shuriken holsters, colour;" and the list went on.

"You have got to be kidding me," Sasuke said quietly. Besides this remark, everyone was quiet.

When they entered Math class, the desks were arranged differently. Instead of tables to seat three, there were scattered single desks. "You will sit in alphabetical order for the test," Kureni said, calling out names. Sakura was separate from her friends. She sat near the front of the room with a bunch of people she didn't know. Sasuke, Naruto and Ino were all right next to each other because of their last names: Uchiha, Uzumaki and Yamanaka. Sakura sighed and focused her attention to the front of the room. The quizzes were distributed and all that could be heard was pencils scratching the paper.

Although she hadn't studied, Sakura had no problem finishing the quiz.

"Aw man," Naruto said glumly, "I wish I would have burned my right hand. Then I wouldn't have had to write that quiz."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It was easy. I don't know what you're going on about."

Sakura nodded. "Even you have to admit, Naruto, that it wasn't that bad. You just have to relax and let your hand do all the work!"

Naruto shrugged and the three of them made they're way to History class. As Asuma had warned the previous class, they received a project. He explained all of the requirements and gave them a due date. The rest of class was spent going through the topics and selecting one. They had to select any country in the world and write a speech, design a visual display and bring in props. "Instead of doing it in your regular groups of three, I will let you chose to be with anyone in the class. No more or less than three per group, please," Asuma said, giving them time to select their group members. The students looked up with surprise at this. They never had the opportunity to choose before!

Naruto looked a little sad. "If I were to pick anyone in the class to be in my group, it would probably be you two," he said sheepishly. Sasuke and Sakura looked at him through wide eyes. Then Sakura's eyes softened.

"Same here," she said cheerily. Sasuke took a minute to respond.

"Yeah," he said, turning away with pink cheeks. He wasn't used to complementing people. _I'm better than everyone else in the class, so it doesn't really matter who I'm with, _Sasuke told himself firmly, but another voice inside him was suddenly awakened. _But I have to admit that Sakura is pretty smart and Naruto…well…he's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. _

"So is it settled?" Naruto asked excitedly. "Are we a team?" The other two nodded and Naruto whooped.

The other teams seemed pretty similar too. Ino Hinata and Tenten were going to be a team, but they felt bad that Sakura couldn't be with them, so they stayed with their original teams. Rock Lee, on the other hand, decided not to be with Tenten and Neji. "I will make it a challenge," he said, "and I will do the whole project on my own!" After Rock Lee's long speech, Asuma didn't really seem to have a choice but to give in.

"What about us?" Tenten asked, motioning to herself and Neji.

Asuma sighed. "You can be a group of two." Tenten held in her excitement. They were bound to do well! Neji _was _an organized freak, after all.

"What country do we chose?" Naruto asked. "It would be easier to do Japan, but another team has already chosen it."

"What other countries have already been chosen?" Sakura asked, looking at the chalk board. "USA, China, Russia, Mexico, India… What other countries are left?" Naruto was silent and Sakura was lost in thought. They needed to think of a country fast before all of the good ones were taken.

"Canada?" Sasuke suggested. The other two looked at him thoughtfully.

Naruto raised his hand. "We'll do Canada!" he exclaimed. Asuma nodded and wrote, "Squad 7: Canada."

The bus ride home felt longer than ever with Neji's constant reminders about Friday's party. Naruto and Hinata were deep in discussion about their favourite flavours of ramen, and Sakura felt awkwardly left out.

When she arrived home, she greeted her parents and then started her homework. First she finished her English essay questions (although she hated it), and then she went onto the computer to do a little research for her History project. A little dinging sound then came from her computer, proclaiming that a new e-mail message had arrived. She clicked it and it read: (these name were randomly selected)

_To: a reminder for the party on Friday. See you there!!_

Sakura chuckled. How could she have forgotten? He had reminded her twenty times on the bus! Sakura went back to her research. She hoped that Naruto had remembered to do his part for the project.

When she finished, she went upstairs to watch TV. The weather came on. Tomorrow was going to be partly sunny/ partly cloudy, and Friday was supposed to pour. She flipped back to another and more entertaining channel and watched. Tonight would be much more relaxing than the previous one. She flipped back and fourth between the computer and TV until dinner and then she got ready for bed.

_**Sakura's Dream:**_

_Sakura entered the fifth door and she found herself at the beginning of a long, empty hallway. She felt really lonely and she desperately wanted to find a way out of there. She slowly began to walk forward, but stumbled and fell. She let out a scream._

Naruto was really tired. After a trip to the ramen shop, he dropped right in the middle of the apartment and fell asleep.

_**Naruto's Dream:**_

_Naruto entered the fourth door and he found himself at the beginning of a long, empty hallway. He felt really lonely and he desperately wanted to find a way out of there. He slowly began to walk forward, but was stopped when a scream erupted from somewhere on his right. He turned but the wall was blocking his way._

Sasuke was really bored. He had finished his homework a long time ago and was left sitting on the couch and watching his brother and his brother's friend run around the house and act like idiots. Perfect. Just great. Not being able to stand it anymore, Sasuke went up to bed.

_**Sasuke's Dream:**_

_Sasuke entered the sixth door and he found himself at the beginning of a long, empty hallway. He felt really lonely and he desperately wanted to find a way out of there. He slowly began to walk forward, but was stopped when a scream erupted from somewhere on his left. He turned but the wall was blocking his way. _

**HELLO! I have to admit that this was one of the shortest days, but do you think it was the most boring? These few days are focused on waiting for Friday's field-trip and party. I can't wait! I have so many ideas! These dreams that squad 7 are having is kind of interesting, huh? What do you think? Should I start including more of the characters yet (Itachi, Gaara…)? Should I break off the main characters into pairs so soon? Should there be more soccer? Should I focus more on the school day or at home? Should I rush with the plot and focus on the good parts? (Oh boy, I sound like Neji!) Tell me your opinion! Thank you so much for reading!!! ******


	7. Sick

**Chapter 7: Sick**

He blinked as the sun shone over his clattered window-sill. The blazing beams burned his blue eyes as they fluttered open to accept the sunlight. What a night he had had.

Of all of the nights that he had dreamt, this one felt different. The difference between this dream and the other's he had in the past was the fact that this one felt so real. He could still clearly remember each and every detail about this dream too- which was odd for this forgetful blonde boy.

It was the second time that he had a dream like this and strangely, it seemed to continue from where the other dream left off.

Naruto evaded the piles of various objects scattered around his small apartment and made his way to the bathroom. The stirring part about that dream had been the ending. Someone had screamed. He had recognized the voice too. Buy why, _why _would she be in his dream? Not only that, but why had she been screaming? He had never seen her in any other mood than pure contentment. This wasn't right. Had something happened to Sakura?

Naruto stopped in his tracks. Only in movies had he heard of people having visions and flashes of current or future events. Surely Naruto, the average, spunky school-boy, wasn't having one…right? Nah. Not Naruto. But still, just to prove himself right, Naruto made the decision to visit Sakura's house before going to school.

Being a restless sleeper, he had trouble getting out of bed. Strange dreams and thoughts came naturally to him, being such a competitive and challenging person. But he had never experienced anything like this. Being continuous and realistic, this dream was something too strange to push aside.

That scream he had heard was clawing at his insides. It was undoubtedly Sakura. Of all people, why Sakura? Of all the dreams he could recall having, he had never actually dreamt of real people. All he felt was emotions. At first, this dream was filled with loneliness and confusion. But then out of no where, her voice broke out through his mind. Screaming was nothing unusual to him, he had dreamt of screaming people before, but this was a scream he had been able to distinguish. This was definitely not normal for the cold Sasuke Uchiha. After he had heard the scream, what had he felt again? Could it be fear? Worry? No. Uchiha's don't worry. They had absolutely no reason to worry. The life of an Uchiha was perfect. No reasons to worry. None.

Other than his mother, all of his relatives were, cool, calm and secretive. They would never let anyone truly know their feelings. Feelings were a weakness. Uchiha's weren't weak.

Sasuke was a proud Uchiha and wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, but he could no longer avoid it. He _was_ worried. He decided to check on Sakura before going to school.

Groaning and massaging her forehead, Sakura awoke. Her limbs were stiff and her mind was racing. Due to her sleep-shortage, Sakura was not feeling well. She tried to stand, but she felt her stomach flip in protest. She tried to curse, but her sore throat wouldn't let her. She tried to process these facts but her throbbing head wouldn't allow it. Sakura was sick.

She sat on her bed just as her mother walked in. "Oh Sakura! Awake at last I see? You look horrible. I could hear you moaning in your sleep last night."

"M-moaning?" Sakura croaked.

"Oh, and you sound horrible too. It looks like you'll be staying home today." She motioned for Sakura to lie back down. She obeyed and closed her eyes. "Call my cell phone if you need anything, Sakura, I'm going to work." Sakura nodded and felt her head throb. Oh boy. This was going to be a long day.

"Sasuke! _(pant) _What are you doing here _(pant)_?" Naruto asked between pants.

Sasuke looked up. "Naruto," he answered. He too was tired but he refused to show it. "I should be asking you that." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and tried to put on a neutral expression.

"Where's your limo? Naruto asked randomly.

Sasuke turned away. "I decided to walk," he lied. Truthfully, Itachi had taken the limo somewhere and left Sasuke stranded at the house. It had taken him a lot of initiative to walk all to way to Sakura's house at such an early hour.

Naruto was about to make a comment when Sakura's mother came out the door and began walking down the driveway. She spotted the two boys standing at the end of it. "Naruto and Sasuke? What are you doing here?" she asked with confusion.

"Er," Naruto answered, "we were just visiting."

Sakura's mother sighed. "I'm sorry but Sakura in unable to leave the house today." Naruto gasped and Sasuke's eyes widened. "She's sick." They both sighed. Mrs. Haruno seemed a little startled by their strange reactions. "Well," she said slowly, "see you around. Say hello to your mother for me Sasuke." Sasuke nodded and Sakura's mother left the two of them standing there awkwardly.

Naruto began walking up the driveway. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to check on Sakura. What are you doing here anyways? Do you normally come to Sakura's house in the morning?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "No, do you?" Naruto shook his head. "Good. Why are you here?"

"I asked you first," Naruto said cheekily.

Sasuke sighed with defeat. "Ok, ok. I was worried about Sakura. I…had a dream last night and it seemed…real." Naruto, being Sasuke's best friend, was the only person (besides Sakura) who Sasuke could open up to. Naruto looked surprised. "Don't laugh," Sasuke said with a glare, "I know it was a stupid idea. I'll go back now."

"No Sasuke, it's not that…it's just…I had a dream too!"

Sasuke froze. This was creepy. "Ok let's go check on her." Sasuke followed Naruto up the driveway.

"Aw man, the front door's locked! Now what do we do?" Naruto cried.

Sasuke paused and glanced around the side of the house. "We'll have to find another way in. Maybe one of the windows was left open." Sasuke led the way to the back of the house.

Sakura was tired, so she plopped her head back down onto her pillows and closed her eyes. She tried to let her mind rest, but she was unsuccessful. Her mind was too busy recollecting memories from the dream the previous night. Trying to push the thoughts out of her mind, she sat up (head throbbing), and decided to go on the couch in the living room.

"This is her bedroom window, right?" Naruto asked as Sasuke pushed him through first.

"Of course it is idiot! We were here only two nights ago." Sasuke gave Naruto one last shove and Naruto fell through. _Thump. _"Well? Is she in there?" Sasuke asked, following suit and trying to squeeze through.

"No."

"No?!" Sasuke entered the room. Sakura's bed was empty. The two boys exchanged nervous glances. Her blankets were ruffled so she must have been here. They scanned the room desperately. Where could Sakura be? Mrs. Haruno said that she was in the house somewhere…but where? Naruto and Sasuke began to worry as memories of the dream returned.

"Oh no!" Naruto cried. "She's gone! The dream came true! Sakura's dead! It's all my fault! We couldn't-"

"Shut up, Naruto. She could be anywhere in the house. We just have to search," Sasuke said calmly, but he couldn't ignore the sudden pang of fear that burst through his chest.

"You're right," Naruto said taking a breath and leading the way. "She's probably downstairs."

Sakura curled up on the couch and rested her head on a pillow. She tried to get it at just the right angle so that her head wouldn't hurt quiet as much. She wrapped herself up in the blankets and flicked on the TV. She was restrained from doing much physical and mental activity, so the best thing to do right now was to watch movies.

She made sure that the movie was slightly boring so that she wouldn't have to strain her mind to catch every line. She let her head sink into her pillow when… CRASH! "SAKURA!"

Her eyes widened. It couldn't be… "Naruto?! What the heck are you doing in my house?!" Due to the fact that she was yelling, her stomach tightened uncomfortably and her head started to pound. Before she knew what was going on, she was pulled into a spine-snapping bear-hug.

"Sakura, are you ok? We came to save you!"

"Well…I wasn't that bad…but now it _really _hurts…," Sakura gagged from somewhere within Naruto's grasp.

"Let her go, idiot, she doesn't like it," came a familiar voice. "And besides, we were wrong, Naruto. She's only sick."

"Sasuke? You got in too? Why did you…come here?" Sakura was really confused. _Only _sick? What else would she be? Sasuke grabbed Naruto from the back of the collar and wrenched him away from Sakura.

"Sakura, you were screaming! I could hear you through the walls! I thought you were dead! It was so real!" Naruto spluttered hurriedly. Sakura sweat-dropped.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "He means to say that this happened in his dream. _Our _dreams. I dreamt it too." He dropped Naruto to the floor and sat down at the chair across from Sakura. Naruto remained sprawled on the floor in a tangled mess.

"You had a dream about me? Well, I'm touched," Sakura said mockingly.

Naruto grinned and Sasuke turned away with a pink tint on his cheeks. "Hn. Cut to the point, will you? Did anything strange happen last night? Do you remember being in a dark tunnel?"

"Dark tunnel?" Sakura said suddenly, making the other two look up. "I had a dream about being in a dark tunnel. I tripped and I…screamed…" The others fell silent. "I also dreamt it yesterday. It was a continuing dream. I was running down a dark hall, and then I went through the fifth door. Or at least, I think it was the fifth door."

Naruto smiled. "I chose the forth door!" The other two seemed slightly uncomfortable because of how calmly and casually he was speaking.

"And I chose the sixth," Sasuke said quietly. "So Sakura was between us. We must have heard her through the wall."

"But wait!" Sakura butted in. "It was just a dream! This didn't actually happen!"

"I know…but you have to admit that it's strange, isn't it?"

"I guess."

"Believe it."

"Hold on," Sakura said abruptly. "Don't you two have to go to school?"

Naruto stood up and slapped his forehead. "Oh yeah! I knew I was forgetting something! Come on Sasuke! Bye Sakura!" He grabbed Sasuke's arm.

"Don't pull Naruto!"

"Bye Sasuke and Naruto! Tell me what I missed at school, ok?"  
"Hn." Sakura heard the door slam behind them and she grinned. That was one unexpected visit!

She felt as if her head was about to explode from all of the sudden facts that she was forced to keep track of. She played the movie, but found her mind to be elsewhere. These dreams were too weird. Having these dreams was strange, yes, but she never knew that Sasuke and Naruto were having the same ones too! This wasn't normal. She didn't usually dream either. What was going on?

Clearly Naruto and Sasuke felt the same way about these dreams too, because they had come rushing to her house. Something suddenly came into realization: They wouldn't have come all the way to her house if they hadn't been worried about her.

Wait, worried? No way! Not Naruto, the always-positive-and-yet-insane,-hyper-active-knuckle-headed freak! Or Sasuke, the cold-cool-perfect-adored-determined-not-to-show-how-he-really-feels Uchiha! In normal situations, Sakura would be the only one smart enough to show her fear. But this case was different. This case was clearly out of the ordinary. Even for people like Naruto and Sasuke, who already had difficult lives.

Sakura watched three movies to let her head settle down. Between the second and the third, she made herself some chicken noodle soup. By the end of the three long movies, the school day was just about finished. "I hope I didn't miss too much today," she sighed. Out of the blue, Sakura decided to go on the computer. She was now able to hold her head up without too much pain.

She first went on simple game sites- she wanted to use the least amount of brain-power as possible. After that, she surfed Youtube for awhile. Then someone text-messaged her.

"Who could -," Sakura began but didn't have to think twice to guess who it was.

**ramen king******** believe it:**** hey sakura!**

"Now who could that be?" Sakura said to herself with a chuckle. She returned it.

**cherry blossom: ****hey naruto. **

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****i came on here cuse i have to give you your homework. **

**cherry blossom: ****i see… how was soccer practice? **

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****not bad. gai made us run the whole time. i think he was mad at us or something.**

**cherry blossom: ****y? **

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****i'm not sure. he seemed a little stressed for some reason. **

**cherry blossom: ****i guess so. that's a pretty good reason to be mad.**

**silent avenger has logged on.**

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****sasuke! wazzup?!?!**

**silent avenger: ****hn.**

**cherry blossom: ****hiya sasuke! **

**silent avenger: ****hn.**

**cherry blossom: ****so what did i miss in school:P**

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****k, in english we got our vocabulary marks back, in chemistry, we got our lab marks back, in math we got our test marks back and in history we worked some more on the project. oh yeah, we had soccer parctice too. we also have to work more on the novel study and we have a field trip tomorrow and neji's party! **

**cherry blossom: ****so what are the marks?**

**silent avenger: ****vacabulary was perfect- 100. on the lab we got a 85. for math, you got a 98. **

**cherry blossom: ****awesome! XD i didnt think i was going to even pass the lab! i really needed you guys for it! **

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****i know! i can leave it up to you guys to boost up my average! on the math quiz, i got 52 and sasuke got 94.**

**cherry blossom: ****good job!**

**silent avenger: ****... :(**

**cherry blossom: ****whats wrong?**

**silent avenger: ****nothing :(**

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****ha ha! he's jealous because you beet him in math! ha ha! XD XD**

**cherry blossom: ****he shouldn't be. he's better than me in chemistry. **

**silent avenger: ****... :(**

**cherry blossom: ****... :(**

**silent avenger: **** :o **

**cherry blossom: **** :o**

**silent avenger: **** :E**

**cherry blossom: **** :E**

**silent avenger: ****O.O...?**

**cherry blossom: ****O.O...?**

**silent avenger: ****T.T ...**

**cherry blossom: ****T.T ...**

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****you guys are soo weird.**

**cherry blossom: ****ha ha! that was fun!**

**silent avenger: ****hn. **

**ramen kingbelieve it: ****well, i've gtg. i need ramen badly. get well soon sakura!**

**ramen kingbelieve it has logged off.**

**cherry blossom: ****do you know what the field trip tomorrow will be?**

**silent avenger: ****no...**

A minute passed.

**cherry blossom: ****well this is awkward. T.T**

**silent avenger: ****T.T**

**cherry blossom: ****O.O**

**silent avenger: ****O.O**

**cherry blossom: ****not this again...**

**silent avenger: ****i have to go.**

**cherry blossom: ****bye then! xoxo!**

**silent avenger: ****-.-' ...? **

**cherry blossom: ****i mean XD XD. sorry...**

**silent avenger: ****yeah. bye. .**

**silent avenger has logged off.**

Sakura slapped herself on the forehead. Talk about embarrassing! Sakura was the kind of person who would usually make typos, but this one was the worst one she had ever made! "Way to go...," she told herself angrily. She tried to push it aside and came to the conclusion that Sasuke would forgive her.

_Ring Ring! _Sakura spun around. Her pink phone was ringing. Now who could that be?

"Hello?" Sakura asked.

"Sakura!" said a familiar, sugar-high voice.

"Hi Tenten! What's up?"

She heard Tenten take a deep breath from the other line. "Well, how are you feeling?"

"Not bad, I'm-,"

"I'm actually calling on Neji's behalf! He wanted to remind you about the party tomorrow night. Sasuke and Naruto told me about you being sick today! What happened? Are you ok?"

Sakura and Tenten continued talking for forty-five minutes, until Sakura's parents came home and called her down for dinner. "Bye Tenten! See you tomorrow!" Sakura was able to eat her mashed potatoes and soup. She was famished from not eating very much. For the first time in awhile, Sakura and her parents had a nice dinner discussion. Both of her parents discussed work matters and Sakura listened patiently. Finally it was time for bed.

Sakura found herself slightly weary to go to sleep because she knew the continuation of her dream awaited her…but nothing came.

Naruto rubbed his belly with satisfaction. Ramen was what made his world go round. He licked his lips and got ready for bed. He sat down on the bed and paused. If he fell asleep, the dream would continue. He gulped and closed his eyes. He was a little worried, but this time he would know what to do. He would be able to save Sakura. He blanked out his mind and waited for the dream…but nothing came.

Sasuke's family discussed work matters over dinner, excluding him as usual. Sasuke went upstairs but his mother called after him, "Where are you going?" He turned. She was talking to him? Why?

"I'm tired," he answered bluntly. He went to his room and lay down on the bed. He really _was _tired. Closing his eyes he waited for sleep to overcome him…but then he paused. The dream. The dream would continue. He tried to push it out of his mind. This time he would be ready to save Sakura. He waited and waited…but nothing came.

**Hello again! Wow, I was actually able to fit one day into one chapter (that's because it was kind of short and kind of a filler day too). The day that we've all really been waiting for is tomorrow. Well, now that squad 7 is aware about the whole dream-thing, it's kind of making sense, isn't it? Oh yes, is everyone ok with sasusaku, naruhina, inoshika and nejiten? Well if you aren't, I'll warn you now: that's what's gonna happen! I'm also sorry for not really including very many new characters in these past couple days. The next little while of the plot is mostly going to be focused on squad 7. Is that ok with everybody? Yes? Ok! I also realized that I'm not really focusing on soccer…yet! It's all going to come in good time! That's all I have to say, so THANKYOU FOR READING! YOU'RE THE BEST! I'm still taking suggestions too…so read and review:D**


	8. Field Trip!

**Chapter 8: Field-Trip!**

She chewed her food with immense speed and dashed out the door. Sakura had never felt so excited for a long time. Today was the day! The field-trip at last! Her parents called after her, "Goodbye!" Sakura waved over her head without turning back.

She made it to the bus stop before anyone else did and was really impatient waiting for it to come. She scrambled on, ignoring the curious stares from the others at the stop. She sat near the front of the bus so that she would be able to get off as soon as the bus came to a stop. Hinata came on next. "G-Good-morning Sakura!"

"Hey Hinata! How's it going?" They continued having a conversation until Sakura noticed the absences of both Naruto and Neji. "Where are they? They aren't sick, right?"

Hinata smiled. "No, don't w-worry. They're at b-basketball practise. Y-you should be happy that N-Neji's not here. He'd b-be talking about t-the party the whole t-time."

Sakura smiled. "I guess you're right."

The bus halted in front of the school and the students filed off the bus with Sakura and Hinata in the lead. "W-What's the rush, Sakura?"

"I'm excited!" Sakura called over her shoulder. Hinata had to run to keep up with her. The two girls made their way up to their lockers and paused. What did they need? They didn't even know where they were going! "I guess we should bring our lunches," Sakura said, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah I guess s-so," Hinata said thoughtfully. When they were finished Sakura started walking towards Kakashi's room, but Hinata went in the other direction.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?" Sakura called.

"O-oh, I'm going to K-Kureni's classroom. Remember when w-we were divided up into teams of t-three? Kureni is my team l-leader. S-see you later, Sakura!"

"Oh right. Um, see you Hinata!" Slightly disappointed that she couldn't be with her friend any longer, Sakura continued walking towards Kakashi's room. When she got in, it was dark and empty. She fumbled around for a light-switch and sat in a desk at the front of the room. Naruto and Sasuke were probably at basketball practise and Kakashi was…late? She sighed and watched the clock ticking. Her restlessness was boiling up..._tic-toc_…the room was so empty…_tic-toc_…where was everyone?..._tic-toc_…she couldn't wait for the field-trip any longer…

Out of sheer boredom, Sakura grabbed a note-book from her bag. She began to doodle a freaky happy-face with a yellow highlighter. Then with her pink gel-pen, she drew another face that was smiling sweetly. Lastly she drew a grumpy face with her blue pen. Somehow, colours and emotions seemed to suit each other well… "What's that?" asked a voice from next to her.

"Huh?" she said, spinning around. Naruto was sitting there, staring down at her picture. "Naruto!" she gasped, backing away.

"Ow," said another voice from her other side. She turned and saw Sasuke, with his arms folded on his desk. His head was resting on them. "Sasuke!" she gasped.

"Sorry I'm late! I guess I got lost on the path of life," said a voice from the front of the room.

"Kakashi!" Sakura said, gasping for the third time. "I didn't see you guys come in!" For the first time ever, Naruto and Sasuke both looked tired. They must have had an intense basketball practise.

"Well, I'm assuming that the three of you are all curious about today's trip." They all perked up. Kakashi smiled. "Well, we actually decided on something simple. This is only the first trip, after all. So in the end, we decided on a trip to the park." They all sweat-dropped.

"The park? How boring is that?!" Naruto said, standing up.

Kakashi sighed. "I didn't pick the trip, but this will be a great time for us to get to know each other. Besides, we aren't just going to any park. We're going to Konoha's finest. Let's get going."

Kakashi went out the door, closely followed by Naruto, then Sakura and lastly Sasuke. Kakashi closed the door behind them and let Naruto take the lead. "Wait! Where exactly are we going?" he asked. Kakashi smiled and said nothing. He stepped in front of Naruto and they walked on.

They reached the school grounds. They passed the parking-lot and reached the side-walk. "It's a ten minute walk. It will be worth it though," Kakashi said with a smile. He pulled out his orange book and started walking. Sakura and Naruto exchanged looks of disgust while Sasuke cringed inwardly. How could someone read that if they had the choice not to?

Sakura's eyes widened when they rounded the bend. This park was the most beautiful place she had ever seen. The bright, evenly-cut grass was decorated with gardens and trees of different, shapes, sizes and colours. A small pond with a grand willow-tree stood before them, and beyond it was a valley. To even things up, the sky was bright and the sun-light shone down in shimmering beams. Wow.

Kakashi walked forward towards the large willow tree. The other three followed. They crossed a small, stone, arch bridge over the pond and then they reached the base of the willow. "Wow," Sakura said in awe, looking up at the tree. It's long, thin branches were like curtains, surrounding them. Kakashi sat down, leaning against the tree and he began to read.

"I can climb this tree! Believe it!"

Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi looked up to find Naruto clinging to the tree's huge trunk. Kakashi smiled and returned to his reading, while Sakura and Sasuke watched and sweat-dropped. Naruto was so weird and yet so amusing.

After climbing about a foot, he fell on his head. The other three held in their laughs. Who needed TV when Naruto was around? "Ok, never mind," he said, rubbing his head. "I know! Let's play soccer! I brought a soccer ball!" The other two agreed. Kakashi watched them out of the corner of his eye.

Still within the tree's branches, they found a big enough clearing to play. "Shouldn't we set up nets?" Sakura asked.

Naruto frowned in concentration. "Nah, we can play every-man-for-himself. It's a lot more fun that way. Here, we only need one net." Using two small bushes as goal-posts, they began their scrimmage under the tutelage of no one other than Kakashi.

Naruto started with the ball. It wasn't a standard-sized one, but it was good enough. He pranced around with it, but wasn't ready for Sasuke and Sakura's surprise attack. Sakura stole the ball and made a quick pass to Sasuke. Naruto ran at him, but he volleyed it back to Sakura, who dashed off with it. "Hey! No fair! We never made teams! This is turning into 'monkey-in-the-middle'!" Naruto cried as his two friends passed the ball back and forth.

"I guess so," Sasuke said with a smirk. "If you can get it from us, one of us will go in the middle."

Kakashi actually put his book down. He couldn't help but watch three of the best soccer players in all of Konoha High playing against each other. As he examined their techniques, he saw that Naruto was more of a physical and aggressive player, Sakura was a fast and agile player, while Sasuke was a balanced mixture of both.

Naruto had come close, but he still had not managed to steal the ball away. He was unable to keep up with the other's speed. "Ok, can we switch now? I'm tired!"

"Ok fine," Sakura answered. "I'll go in the middle." Sasuke was suddenly angry. He was a little afraid that he would be beaten by Sakura.

Naruto made a quick pass to Sasuke, who passed it back immediately. Slightly surprised, Naruto dribbled it around a little as Sakura chased him. When he passed it to Sasuke, he returned it back to him again. Sasuke didn't want to take the chance that Sakura would steel the ball from him. Finding it strange that the ball-hog Sasuke was trying to get rid of the ball so quickly, Naruto made a high pass that would force Sasuke to block it with his body and dribble it a little. But being the stubborn person he was, Sasuke still wanted to pass it back. He sprang into the air and performed a perfect bicycle-kick back to Naruto. Naruto didn't even bother to get the ball. Nor did Sakura. They just watched Sasuke in amazement as he clambered back to his feet.

"Whoa, that was cool," Naruto said. "I've never done a bicycle-kick from that height!" Sasuke seemed a little surprised himself.

"Tsk!" Sakura spat, turning away. Sasuke perked up. Was she jealous? "I've never seen someone more stubborn in my whole life!" Ok…so she wasn't jealous.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked coldly. After that difficult trick, he was hoping for praise.

"You don't want to play against me," she said matter-of-factly.

"Don't I?" he said with a cocked eyebrow, trying to act surprised. Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them. Kakashi watched with interest.

"Since I was in the middle, you've been holing back! Why? Are you afraid to hurt me?"  
"No!" Sasuke said immediately. That had struck him. Kakashi was now really interested. This was nearly as interesting as "Make-Out Paradise". No one had ever dared to use that tone with the great Sasuke Uchiha. Maybe this would do him some good.

"Or," she said, a devious grin sprouting beneath her nose, "are you afraid to lose?"

"N-No!" he stuttered. He was officially ready to flatten her. But he couldn't flatten her because she was a girl and because Kakashi was watching. Was she trying to make him angry? Was she trying to make him lose his cool? Of course she was. But being the stubborn person he was, Sasuke refused. He quickly regained his composure, stuffed his hands in his pockets and said, "Hn."

Deciding to end this before it got physical, Kakashi called them over. "How about we go for a walk?" he asked. The three of them spun around.

"Yeah!" said Naruto. He ran over with Sasuke and Sakura following. Kakashi led them past the gardens to a valley. They walked through it for at least ten minutes. Naruto and Sakura talked the whole way and Sasuke was quiet and determinedly not looking at them. Kakashi was reading his book, occasionally glancing up at his students. After a few minutes, it began to rain.

"That's funny," Sakura said, "I don't remember hearing about rain today on the news."

"Same," said Kakashi. "But they can make mistakes. We might as well keep going." They walked for another five minutes, but the down-pour was steadily increasing. "Ok, we should head back in that direction now," said Kakashi, spinning on the ball of his foot.

"It's about time!" said Naruto, who was sopping from head to toe. Same with Sakura and Sasuke. Eventually the rain was so heavy that it was blocking their vision. They could barely see each other.

"Ow!" cried Naruto suddenly. The others looked up. Naruto was supporting a bruise on his shoulder.

"Where'd you get that fr-…ow!" Sakura peered down at her arm that was now bruised too.

Sasuke winced. "Hail."

"This could get dangerous," Kakashi said, with a sudden, stern tone. "Follow me; we need to get out of here." The others stayed close behind him. As the rain had, the hail started to thicken. Their shoulders were full of bruises after only a matter of seconds. No one seemed to notice that Sakura, who had been following the others, had stopped walking.

"Over there!" Naruto yelled while pointing at an old tool shed. They ran into it. It was cramped, but it would have to do. The three of them paused for a moment.

"Where's Sakura?" Sasuke asked suddenly. Naruto and Kakashi looked around. She wasn't in the shed. They looked back over their shoulders. She must still be out there. To make matters worse, the hail had thickened even more since they had arrived in the shed.

Kakashi found a large wooden board in the corner of the shed. He picked it up and ran back outside. "It's my responsibility as a teacher to retrieve her!" he said, his arms shaking from the hail's pounding force.

"I'm coming," Sasuke said suddenly, also stepping under the board.

"S-Same here!" Naruto said, agreeing with Sasuke. He followed Sasuke under the board.

"But one injured student is enough for me to handle," said Kakashi. "I don't want you getting hurt too." But the other two didn't turn back. They walked forward, squinting their eyes and desperately trying to see beyond the continuous falling ice surrounding them.

"Sakura! Sakura!" Naruto called, spinning frantically. The shelter of the board wasn't enough to protect all three of them from all of the ice pellets and the pain was increasing on their sore shoulders. At last, Naruto spotted something on the ground. "Sakura?!"

They ran towards the figure. Sasuke was getting ahead of himself, and he ran out from under the board. "Sasuke wait!" He approached the figure first, who was undoubtedly Sakura. Her pink strands of hair were sprawled across the grass and she was face-down. She was shivering and was covered in bruises. Without a second to lose, Sasuke scooped her up and carried her back to the safety of the board- his arms now supporting large wounds too. Naruto pulled her out of Sasuke's grasp, seeing him trembling and they returned back to the shed. Kakashi was still holding the board over them.

When they arrived back to the shed, they placed Sakura down on the floor. The door of the shed was jammed, so Kakashi lay the board over the opening. They were now freezing cold; the icy droplets were clinging to their faces. Their clothing was sopping and their shoulders, arms and backs were covered in bruises. "What do we do now?" Naruto asked, shivering.

Kakashi sighed and sat down on the small shed's floor. "We wait for the hail to cease. As soon as that happens, we should get back to the school as quickly as possible."

"But what about Sakura? Is there anything we can do?"

Kakashi leaned forward and looked down at her. "Hmm. She'll be fine. I'm assuming by the bruise on her head that a piece of hail hit her. She should wake up in a few minutes." Naruto and Sasuke sat down too. Kakashi sat in between the two of them and Sakura lay before them. Kakashi read his book as Sasuke and Naruto leaned against the walls of the shed and waited. Their backs were sore, but touching them only irritated them more. They would just have to grin and bear it until they got out of this mess.

The continuous thumping on the roof only got stronger. At times, it almost seemed that the entire roof were about to cave in. After ten minutes, the silence was broken by a growl. Sasuke and Kakashi turned towards Naruto who was clutching his stomach. "I'm hungry," he said, wincing. He stuffed his hand into his pocked and when he brought it back up, he was clutching a bowl of instant ramen.

"How are you going to heat it up?"

Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi looked up. Sakura was on her hands and knees, trying to pull herself into a sitting position. "Whoa, whoa, take it easy," said Kakashi. Naruto sprang to his feet and Sasuke stared with surprise.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried, diving at her and locking her in a tight hug. She cringed at the sudden impact. Sasuke frowned from the corner and Kakashi looked up.

"Stop!" he said suddenly. "Get over here!"

"Huh?" Naruto and Sakura said together. Sasuke's head shot up.

"Move it, you two!" he yelled at the two of them. Still oblivious to the situation, Naruto and Sakura sat there, dumbfounded. The two of them spun around, but it was too late to see what was going on. As if in slow-motion, Kakashi grabbed Naruto's arm and Sasuke grabbed Sakura's wrist just as the roof caved in behind them.

Half of the shed was completely destroyed. The large gap gave the hail an opening, and it obliterated the remains of the fallen half of the shed. Squad seven was left with just enough space above them so that they could sit without getting pummelled by the hail. The roof was as low as Kakashi's head and there was just enough space width-wise to fit them all in.

Kakashi was on the end, still holding Naruto's arm and breathing heavily. He had nearly lost two of his three students, and he was thankful that Sasuke had reacted in the same way by saving Sakura. At the moment, Sasuke was on the end, still clutching Sakura's wrist. Sakura was unable to move because of her injuries, but that was no matter. She was squished between her other two team-mates. Naruto was shocked for a few seconds, but then he decided to push it out of his mind and he opened his ramen.

Also feeling hungry, Sakura reached inside her coat and took out her lunch from a small bag. Kakashi sighed and put his head in his hand. What was happening to this perfectly planned field-trip? Stupid whether-channel.

Deciding that it would be best to push angry thoughts out of his mind, Kakashi returned to his reading. Sakura and Naruto began eating (I have no clue how Naruto managed to heat up his ramen…and I don't really _want _to know…), and Sasuke, after watching them for a few minutes, glared into space.

"Yuff ungy asuey?" asked Naruto through a mouthful of ramen. Sasuke and Sakura looked at him with disgusted/quizzical looks. Naruto swallowed. "You hungry, Sasuke?" he repeated, but this time in a way they could distinguish.

"Hn," Sasuke answered, turning away.

"Did you even bring a lunch?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shook his head. "Do you want some ramen?"

"I'm not hungry," Sasuke answered, rolling his eyes. He would rather die than eat ramen anyways.

"Are you sure?" Naruto pestered- trying to annoy him.

"Yes."

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked suddenly.

"I'm _not _hungry," he said sternly.

"Um…," she said, "it's actually not about that. It's just…I'm fine so…you can let go of my wrist now, you know."

Sasuke twitched uncomfortably. Whoops. He looked down and his eyes confirmed that he was indeed still holding her wrist with a firm grip. "Aa," he said bluntly, feeling a hot sensation grow up his spine and he turned away.

"Hee, hee, stop blushing, Sasuke," Naruto said.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"Maybe I will," Sasuke said, raising his fist.

"Er, maybe we should talk about something?" Sakura said, trying to break up the battle.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed. He was very easily distracted, which was the reason that he never held grudges against anyone. "I know what we should talk about! How about embarrassing moments?"

Sakura cocked an eyebrow. "Why, do you have something in mind?"

An evil grin sprouted beneath his nose. "Maybe I do," he said, rubbing his hands together. "You'll definitely remember this one Sasuke."

"Will I?" he said, his eyes narrowing. "You better not say what I think you're going to say."

"I just might. You see, Sakura, this happened last year."

Sasuke groaned. "Naruto, I have a funny feeling that this was _my _embarrassing moment."

Naruto grinned. "Who cares whose moment it was? It was hilarious! Anyways, last year we had gym class, and we had to change after, right? Well, I decided to play a prank on Sasuke…so I took his clean change of clothes."

Sasuke determinedly turned away. Kakashi pretended to be reading his book and Sakura sweat-dropped. "It was the end of the day so Sasuke thought that most people had gone home. So he stepped out into the hallway with nothing on, and said something like, 'Hey has anybody seen my clothes?' But when he got out, how many were there again? Fifty fangirls? Maybe sixty? Anyways, I was waiting around the corner, laughing my butt off with Kiba. Yep, that was the best day of my life."

Kakashi giggled. "S-sorry. There was something funny in the book," he lied. Rays of heat were emitting from Sasuke's burning face. Sakura was stifling her laughter to the best of her ability. Sure she felt sorry for Sasuke, but that _was _pretty funny.

"I'll get you back for that, Naruto. I happen to remember one of your embarrassing moments too," Sasuke growled.

"Um, how about we change the subject?" Naruto said suddenly.

"Nice try," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Three years ago, we were walking into the school, and I don't really know how it happened, but Naruto got his pocket-,"

"_Ramen-pocket_."

"Ok, _ramen-pocket _caught in the doorknob. Then he started screaming things like, 'Someone's got my pants! Someone's got my pants!'" Sakura laughed at Sasuke's impersonation of Naruto in a stupidly high voice. "Then the principle, Tsunade, and the vice principle, Jiraiya, came down and helped remove him from the door. Naruto was still screaming and they had to literally _drag _him to the office."

Naruto frowned. "It actually _was _scary, you know! I thought Sasuke was trying to pants me!"

Sasuke smirked. "I _did _pants you once, remember? In grade 4?"

They continued recalling embarrassing moments. In fact, they got so preoccupied, they became mildly unaware of the dangerous hail pellets that were slowly beginning to slow down. After Naruto told Sakura about Sasuke's fifth embarrassing moment, he asked, "What about you, Sakura? Do you remember anything?"

"No I don't," she said with a sigh. "I actually kind of wish that I remembered some."

Naruto patted her on the back gently, laughing. "Don't worry, after staying here for awhile, you're bound to experience more than a few embarrassing moments. I mean, even _Sasuke _got embarrassed! Those are the moments that I will savour for the rest of my life…"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but smirk. Sakura smiled and leaned against the back of the shed's wall, but winced as one of her wounds met it. The other three looked up at her, but she shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she said immediately.

"Oh yeah, Sasuke," Naruto said suddenly. "I just remembered another one of your embarrassing moments!" Sasuke groaned. "It just happened now! It was _proof_ and I mean _proof _that you _do _like Sakura! You blushed and you-," SMACK! Sasuke was shaking and holding his fist victoriously over Naruto's head. Sakura didn't really know what to say…but then an idea suddenly occurred to her. She'd make Sasuke lose his cool! There was nothing more fun than that, right?

"Sasuke?" she asked sweetly.

"Hn," he replied grumpily.

She pretended to be shy. "Sasuke, I was wondering…is what Naruto said true?" Sasuke became tense and slightly nervous. She rested her head on his shoulder. "Do you like me Sasuke?"

She felt how shaken he was and suppressed her laugh. "N-n-no," he replied.

"Not even a little bit?" she asked, hugging his arm and feel it stiffen.

"Well I-I…"

Sakura couldn't hold it in any longer and she burst out laughing. "Ha ha! Sorry, Sasuke, I couldn't resist! It's so fun to make you lose your cool!" Sasuke looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. Naruto also joined in laughing.

"Good one, Sakura! You almost make Sasuke go mad! He was as red as a-," SMACK! "Ow!"

"Shut up Naruto," he said, glaring at him with a deadly expression. "And thanks a lot, Sakura," he said sarcastically, turning away. Sakura and Naruto were still laughing. Kakashi's stomach was cringing he was trying so hard not to laugh. Naruto was now bearing a few new injuries that had nothing to do with the hail.

"Alright gang," Kakashi said suddenly. "The hail has stopped. We should be able to make it back to the school in this drizzle." He stood up. His three students tried to stand, but had difficulty. Sasuke was the first one to stand, followed by Naruto, but Sakura had no success.

"Here I'll help you!" said Naruto. Sasuke glared and Naruto glared right back. Kakashi rolled his eyes and pulled Sakura to her feet. "Hey!" Naruto yelled. Kakashi shrugged and led the way.

Sasuke, who was now in a very foul mood, walked ahead of the other two, following Kakashi. Sakura and Naruto followed Sasuke. Eventually they started talking about random hobbies and memories. "I used to collect chopsticks when I was young, but only the ones that I ate ramen with. They would still kind of smell like ramen, you know? I used to sniff them before I went to bed every night."

Sakura sweat-dropped. "Well that's…unique. Why did you stop collecting them?"

"Because I ate three of them and got sick."

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura stopped walking. "You ate your chopsticks?" Kakashi asked, slightly nervous.

"Only three…ok _four _times. But the fourth time was by accident." Naruto continued walking along the path as if people ate chopsticks everyday.

**Finally the party chapter is coming (it's going to be VERY long!!) Please keep reading and reviewing!**


	9. The Party

**Chapter 9: The Party**

When the four of them arrived back at the school (all bearing injuries), they met up with their friends who had just finished their field-trips. Their trips hadn't turned out to be nearly as dangerous as squad 7's and they all seemed to be totally unharmed by the hail's wrath. "We went for a hike," Ino said, "but the hail didn't start until we stopped to give Choji a break at a restaurant." Choji grinned.

"We went to a football game!" Rock Lee exclaimed. "We were protected by the youthful power of the stadium." Sweat-drops filled the room.

"Tsk! Bor-ing!" Kiba interjected. "We had a tour of Konoha's finest sites!"

"And we went to a mall," Shino said quietly.

"And a pet shop!" Kiba finished.

"Um…nice?" Sakura said unsurely.

Before anyone was ready, Neji stepped forward. "In case any of you have forgotten, I would like to remind you that tonight I'm having a-,"

"Party! We know!" the others finished.

It was 4:30; one hour and a half before the party; and Sakura was already packed and ready to go. By the way Neji had made it sound, this party was going to be awesome. Sakura had secretly been fanaticizing about the wonders of the party held in the Hyuuga mansion. Actually, she was also excited to merely enter the mansion itself. She also hoped that she had appropriate attire- a pair of pink, plaid pyjama bottoms and a black tank-top with a pull-over. She was considering doing her hair differently- just for a change (because since school started, all she's ever worn was her navy head-band), but in the end she decided on the same hair-style, but with a black head-band instead.

She gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Her green eyes still stood out- even with her lack of make-up-use. She decided to not to over-do it because she probably wouldn't end up having time to wash it off anyways.

Out of boredom and anxiousness, she rooted through the bags she would be bringing. A change of clothes, her bag of "necessities", stuffed animals, blankets, a sleeping-bag, pillows and candy. She was sure that the Hyuuga's already had most of these things, but she felt more comfortable bringing her own.

Sakura glanced back at the pink clock on her bed-side table. It was 5:00 and she still had an hour. She sighed and plopped down on her bed. After waiting for 10 minutes, Sakura decided to go early.

She made her way down the road, dragging her bags behind her. Thankfully their mansion wasn't too far away. She left the town-house district to where the houses became noticeably bigger. When at last she arrived at the front door (by now this building seemed even bigger than their school), she gulped and rang the door-bell. She was greeted by a maid who was there within 5 seconds. She bowed politely, and Sakura returned the bow, startling the maid. Sakura studied her- she appeared to be only a couple years older than her.

"Miss Sakura Haruno, I presume?" the maid asked formally.

"That would be my name!" Sakura said with a grin. "But…um…how did you know it was me?"

The maid showed Sakura her clip-board. There was a list of guests along with a picture of each one. "Well that would explain why," Sakura said, pointing to her pink locks. The maid grinned and took Sakura's bags. Sakura proceeded into the building.

She held in her gasp when she entered. There was a chandelier hanging over her (an enormous one at that), a marble staircase with a solid gold railing, plants so large that they looked like trees, picture frames of various metals; each frame larger than Sakura's house, windows draped with deep red curtains, various hallways, maids scurrying in different directions…Sakura was overwhelmed.

"Er, excuse me miss?" the maid said, snapping Sakura out of her trance. "Will you please follow me?"

"Sure."

After going to Konoha High for a week, Sakura was used to having no sense of direction. But that was nothing compared to this. Sakura had a hard time _keeping up _with the maid. Sakura decided to not even bother keeping track of where they were going either.

They arrived at a set of vast double-doors labelled "Party Room". The maid swung the doors open revealing…well Sakura's eyes had to adjust first.

This was the coolest frigging room Sakura had ever seen in her entire life. The walls were black with small, white lights installed into them- making it seem as if she were in outer space. In the far corner there was a stage, equipped with guitars, a drum-set, a keyboard, amplifiers, microphones and even curtains. There was a disco-ball above it, a huge karaoke machine next to it and a DJ on the other side. On another wall, it almost seemed like an entirely different room. An arcade. It was filled with flashy games along with a pool table, a ping-pong table, three bowling lanes, and was that a mini-put course? One of the walls was a screen (nearly bigger than a movie-theatre's) and facing it was a twenty-foot long couch. The floor beneath it was filled with pillows, stuffed animals, bean-bag chairs, blow-up chairs (and many other kinds of chairs), and small tables with silver trays (that were filled with food). Maids were scurrying in every direction.

In the middle of all of the havoc sat two teenagers with silver eyes; the Hyuuga cousins; Hinata and Neji. "S-Sakura!" Hinata exclaimed, rushing forwards and giving Sakura a friendly hug. The maid put Sakura's bags down beside the couch and gave her a wave before leaving the room.

"So what to you think?" Neji said with a grin. "Do you like it?"

Sakura exhaled and scanned the room again. "I'm lost for words," she muttered to herself. Neji caught this remark and his grin widened.

"N-Negi worked really h-hard to make this room p-perfect," Hinata sighed, also admiring the room.

"That sounds troublesome," said a voice from behind them. "But it _did_ pay off."

"Shikamaru," Neji said, welcoming in the next guest. Shikamaru looked as lazy as ever in his pyjamas and looked ready to sleep at any time. "Come sit down! Make yourself comfortable!"

The four of them started talking until a squeal drowned them out. "Oh my _gosh_! This is so _awesome_!" came Ino's obnoxious voice.

"Oh great," Shikamaru sighed, but he couldn't hide the smile that graced his lips.

"Whoa…," said another voice.

"Tenten! Ino!" Sakura called to two of her best friends.

"H-hey guys!" Hinata called.

"Nice to see you, Tenten," Neji said quietly. The two new guests found places to sit. "So," Neji said, "the only ones yet to come are Naruto and Sasuke."

Sakura rolled her eyes as her team-mates were mentioned. "Those idiots," she said with a small chuckle.

"Hey! I'm not an idiot!" came a voice that was even more annoying than Ino's. At this new voice, Hinata blushed different shades of red.

"Yeah you are," came another voice; much more cool and collective than the other.

"Hey Naruto and Sasuke!" Sakura said, smiling.

"N-N-N-N-N-," Hinata began, but she was unable to finish, due to the fact that she nearly passed out.

Naruto picked up a pillow and hit Sasuke in the back of the head with it. "I'm no idiot!" Sasuke and Sakura's eyes met for a moment. They quickly turned away and held in their laughs. Naruto was one of the stupidest people they had ever met...but being the person he was, Naruto was completely oblivious to it. Sasuke chose to ignore Naruto and sat down on the floor in a pile of pillows. Naruto sat down next to him, forgetting that fact that he had been angry.

"So, are you guys ready to start the party?" Neji asked.

"OH YEAH!" both Naruto and Ino screeched. "Let's do karaoke first!" Naruto exclaimed.

"No! We have to wait until it's late and we're all too tired to realize what we're doing!" Tenten butt in. "How about truth or dare?"

"Not yet! We have to wait until it's late for that too!" Ino shouted.

"W-why don't we play some of the g-games in the a-ar-arcade?" Hinata asked shyly. Everyone paused.

"Sure."

"Good idea."

"Why not?"

"Hn."

"Sounds like a great way to start the party!"

And so the arcade it was.

Sakura started with a vicious game of ping-pong with Ino, but Ino left to watch Shikamaru play pool with Neji and Sasuke. Tenten and Hinata were playing a racing game. "Wh-why does it always have to be so violent?" Hinata asked herself quietly. But with Tenten around, _everything _was _always _violent. Naruto on the other hand was by himself (which isn't usually a good sign). He was starting a game of mini-put. He put the golf ball down and swung. _Tak! _It hit the ball. Naruto looked around. _Where _was the ball?!

"Arugh!" came Sasuke's voice from the other end of the arcade, causing everyone to look up. He backed into the wall behind him from the impact of the orange golf ball that had come out of no where and hit him smack-dab in the center of his forehead.

Before he was ready to defend himself, he was surrounded by maids who were all waving ice-packs, cloths and bandages in his face. He brushed them off (besides, he was used to having maids around), and began walking straight towards Naruto, lust in his eyes. "Dang it, Sasuke's going to snap…," Sakura thought to herself quietly.

Naruto didn't really seem to care and prepared to hit the ball again. "L-Look out, Naruto!" Hinata called with worry. Sasuke raised his fist to land a punch on Naruto…just as Naruto swung his golf club…hitting Sasuke in the stomach.

"Urugh!" Sasuke's hand immediately reached for his stomach and he groaned furiously. His stomach hurt a little bit; enough to force him to double-over; but he hardly noticed it. He was embarrassed. _Very _embarrassed. He heard Neji and Shikamaru's silent sniggers from somewhere behind him, he head Naruto's confused remarks, Hinata's worried cries, Ino and Tenten's gasps…but what about-?

"Sasuke." His eyes snapped up. "Are you ok?" He brushed his bangs away so that his entire face was visible…revealing a deep, distinguishable blush. Great. She felt bad for him. Now he felt like even more of an idiot! How would he pull this one off? He sought for something to say at an awkward moment like this, but no ideas came to mind.

"Er…yeah…," he uttered, staring at the ground. Now what?! Before he was ready to conjure up another stupid phrase to say, he felt a hand, ever so lightly, touch his shoulder.

"Sasuke," Sakura repeated, looking directly into his eyes. She could feel how tense he was. "I can't take you seriously. Are you sure that you're alright? You seem a little…shaky." Sakura couldn't help but continue questioning him. Sasuke was obviously hiding how he really felt, but a human could only hold in so much.

Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he reached across his body and grabbed her hand. His initial intention was to pull her hand away, but for some reason…

…Sakura's mind started to go blank and her vision grew hazy. His stare was so intense…

"Am I interrupting anything?"

Sasuke and Sakura came back to reality and snapped their heads around to face the others who were all staring with curiosity. Sasuke quickly pulled her hand away and spun around to face the opposite direction. Sakura was still slightly in a trance but she managed to look at her friends anyways. "N-nothing at all," Sakura said, and surprising herself, she noticed that her voice sounded quite dreamy. She shook her head and smiled. Tenten, Ino and Hinata all exchanged smirks while Shikamaru, Neji and Naruto all looked confused.

"Miss Haruno would you like some ice?" came one maid's voice.

"Would you like to sit down?" said another.

"How about a cold cloth?"

"Refreshments?"

Sakura was surrounded. Seeing this as a chance for and opening, Ino pulled the others aside (accept for Sasuke, who was sulking in the corner). "You guys, we have to take action!"

"What d-do you mean?" Hinata asked.

Ino rolled her eyes as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "We have to get Sakura to realize that she _does _like Sasuke! And vice-versa of course."

"Tsk! This sounds like a girl thing," Neji said, shaking his head. Shikamaru nodded and Naruto still seemed confused.

Ino snorted. "I don't really care _whose _thing it is! We're going to need your help!" She pointed to the three boys who all raised their eyebrows. "We need to show them what to do!"

Tenten gagged. "What do you mean _show _them?!"

Ino gulped. "Well…we have to, um…give them the right idea." Everyone stared at her. "I mean…we have to…um…"

"What you're saying is," Shikamaru said with a frown, "is that we have to act like couples so that they might be able to catch on."

Ino smiled sheepishly. "I g-guess you could put it that way."

"Aright then, who's going to pair up with whom?" Silence.

"I'll be with Shikamaru!" Ino squealed. He sighed but decided that it would be better not to argue.

"OK!" Naruto yelled. "I don't really know what we're talking about, but I'll be with Hinata!" Hinata froze and even if she wanted to, she would be unable to protest.

"I guess I'm…with…," Tenten started.

"I'll be with you, Tenten," Neji said quickly. Tenten turned away and smiled to herself. After everything was settled, Ino cleared her throat.

"Alright," she said. "Before we start, I have one last thing to say: Don't go too far. You'll just end up creeping them out. Got it? No hugging and stuff like that either, ok? It will make them suspicious."

"I think we already _knew _that," Tenten said with a huff.

"I never did like doing favours for Sasuke, but I guess I'll do something just this once," Naruto said, "because it also is a favour for Sakura."

"Wow. Do you guys have great service or what?" Everyone turned around to face Sakura, who was licking a strawberry ice-cream cone. Sasuke appeared at her side, scowling as usual.

"What are you guys up to?" Sasuke asked, trying to keep his voice in a monotone. No one bothered to answer, infuriating him. "Hn," he said, deciding that it would be better not to say anything more.

"So what should we do now?" Tenten asked, breaking the silence.

"I know!" Naruto exclaimed. "We should do karaoke!"

"Not _yet _Naruto!" Ino reminded him.

"Why don't we eat?" Neji suggested. There were no objections, so they followed Neji out of the Party Room to the Dining Room. The Dining Room, unlike the Party Room, was a very long room with a huge, rectangular table in the center. Maids were running through large double-doors with more silver trays filled with appetizers and beverages. After about one minute, one waiter (or waitress) came up to each person.

"Miss Haruno?" said a waiter behind her. Sakura nodded. "May I take your order please? Select any kind of pizza."

"Uh…pepperoni?" she said unsurely.

"Is that all?"

"And cheese?"

"I will be back in a moment, Miss," the waiter said with a bow and he went dashing through the double-doors. Sakura sighed. She was never going to get used to this. She looked around at her friends who were also being served. She held in her laugh when Naruto's waiter told him that he had never herd of "ramen-flavoured pizza". Sasuke's waitress was goggling at him in a very fangirl-like way. Sasuke looked angry.

When the food came everyone gobbled it up without a hint of hesitation, but Sakura couldn't help but watch her friend's interesting eating-habits. Naruto finished each slice in two bites, Sasuke and Neji were trying to eat politely (but were failing), Shikamaru and Hinata were nibbling it, Tenten started with the crust and Ino rolled hers up and ate it like a wrap. And Sakura? She took a bite and chewed. Simple as that.

After dinner, they helped themselves to piles of different deserts…accept for Ino that is. "I'm too fat to eat desert," she said, starting longingly at the food.

Sakura nearly choked. "_You're _fat?! No, you're insane! You're the skinniest one here! If _you're _fat than _I'm _obese!"

"Sakura's right!" Tenten exclaimed. "Don't talk like that in front of me either, because you know that I've been jealous of you! _I'm _the one who's fat!"

"Do you know what _I've _got to say?" Shikamaru said. "Girls are stupid."

"Yeah," Sasuke said with a smirk, "because you're _all _fat." This earned him a smack in the head from Sakura. Shikamaru and Neji burst out laughing while Naruto said something unexpected.

"Hey! Don't be like that Sasuke! Hinata's beautiful!" Sasuke and Sakura looked utterly shocked, while the other's looked at each other with realization. They had almost forgotten about the deal they had made and were surprised that Naruto had been the first to remember.

"Thank you Naruto," Hinata replied…without stuttering a single word! But she was unable to hold back the blush. Neji and Shikamaru exchanged worried glances. Where the girls expecting compliments from them too?

"Ino," Shikamaru said quietly, "Sakura was right. You look fine."

"Tenten," Neji said, "you shouldn't doubt yourself. You look great."

Sasuke and Sakura stared in disbelief. Before he was ready for it, Sasuke had all eyes on him. _They've set me up!_ "Sakura," Sasuke said, "if you're expecting me to compliment you, it's not going to happen." Everyone sighed.

"Don't worry," Sakura replied, "you're too stupid to know how." Everyone perked up, knowing that Sasuke would try to prove her wrong.

"I'm not stupid," Sasuke retorted, trying to keep his voice in a monotone. "I was just being honest. Besides, I never go back on my word." He watched her with amusement as she flared up.

"Really?" she said quietly. "You think t-that I really am _fat_?" _So that's how he's thought of me all this time? _Sasuke's smirk slowly faded. "Do you want to know how I think of you?" Before Sasuke was ready for it, he received the hardest slap he had ever felt in his entire life- right across the face. "You're _stupid_, _ugly_ and _I HATE YOU_!" Every word she spoke was entirely a lie, but this time, her short-temper had taken control.

The slap had nearly sent Sasuke's head colliding into the table, but he regained his balance just in time. A stinging emotion burned through his chest. Could this be…regret? Had he gone too far this time? Well no kidding he had gone too far this time. Sakura hates him now!

Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, Hinata, Tenten and Ino stared with utter disbelief. Not only had their plan failed, it had turned out to be a total disaster! Trying to change the subject, Naruto quickly said, "Should we…do karaoke now?"

"Sure," Shikamaru said. Sakura left the room first, followed by the other girls who wanted to try to cool her down. The boys had to literally drag Sasuke out of the Dining Room. No one wanted to speak to him though- he was in and extremely bad mood.

Once they were in the Party Room again, Ino took both of Sakura's shoulders. "Before we go any further, you have to know: _You are not fat!_" Sakura sighed.

"I know," she said quietly. "I don't think I'm that huge either."

"Then why did you snap like that?" Tenten asked.

Sakura bowed her head down. "I don't know really. It's just…it's not that I really care how _I _think of me…it's just…what matters is…I guess…how _he _thinks of me." Sakura covered her mouth with her hand when realization hit. Did this mean that she-? Does she really-?

"Y-you like him, Sakura?" Hinata asked, but Sakura never had a chance to answer because the four boys came into the room.

"Karaoke time!" Naruto exclaimed, running over to the stage. He dived up on it and before anyone was ready, he started singing some sort of western song. His voice was incredibly out of tune, but he didn't seem to notice or care. Everyone covered their ears (accept for Hinata who was grinning and bearing it).

Ino went next. Her voice wasn't much better than Naruto's! _"Be my bad boy! Be my man! Be my weekend lover but don't be my friend…" _Everyone resisted the urge to cover their ears again. Unfortunately, Ino and Naruto were the only ones brave enough to sing, so they sang for the whole time.

Getting bored, Ino said, "Why don't we dance?" They got the DJ all set up and stood on the dance floor (well, Ino and Naruto did) and they started dancing up a storm. "Come on Shikamaru!" she called, pulling him onto the floor and dancing circles around him. You could tell in an instant that he would rather be anywhere but there.

"You too Hinata!" Naruto called, grabbing her wrist and dancing around her in a very Ino-like manner.

Deciding that it would be best for Sasuke and Sakura to not have attention drawn to them (or else they might get angry again), Ino called, "What about you two Neji and Tenten? Are you coming?"

The two of them bowed their heads with embarrassment. "Well it's just-," Tenten said.

"You see -," Neji said.

"-I can't dance," they said together.

Ino stopped and considered. "Well, this _is _a pretty hard song to dance to because it's fast…but slow songs are _easy _to dance to! Hey you! Why don't you play 'Every time We Touch- Candlelight Version'?"

"Aw man," Shikamaru said quietly. "I hate Cascada." Ino ignored him.

Neji and Tenten sighed. "Well," Neji said, "if it's easy, than I might just have to try it." Tenten blushed and stood up with him. When the music started, everyone proceeded into their slow-dancing, accept for Sasuke and Sakura who were sitting on opposite ends of a small couch.

Sakura's emotions were boiling up inside- all of the anger and frustration…and the new fact that she might actually _like _him. All of the confusion, realizations, inner-suffering… (and what didn't help the least bit was the music playing in the background: _"…I still feel your touch in my dreams. Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why; without you it's hard to survive…"_)…all of it came out in a tear. Sakura quickly wiped it away- hoping beyond hope that no one had noticed it. Seeing as the three couples were still dancing and Sasuke was glaring into space, she figured that no one saw it.

But someone had. Although Sasuke was trying his hardest not to look at anything, once or twice, he averted his eyes to her. He searched her facial expression for any signs of detest…because she hated him, right? But all he found was emptiness. Her expression was unreadable…until he spotted a tear leak from her eye. He quickly snapped his head away. What did this mean? Sasuke sighed as he came to a conclusion: Girls are _very _weird.

When the song ended, the three fake couples broke up. So far their progress had achieved less than a zero. But they did have to admit that secretly…they _enjoyed _this plan. I mean for the girls, having to pretend to be in a relationship with their crushes was nothing to complain about!

They decided to watch a movie next, but first, those who hadn't already changed into their pyjamas changed quickly. (Recap: Sakura is wearing pink, plaid bottoms with a black tank-top and a pull-over). Sakura took off her pull-over. Hinata and Neji (being the rich people they were) were both wearing similar pyjamas (accept that Hinata's was a night-gown) that were top-quality designer pyjamas. Ino's were a little bit on the skimpy side and Tenten's were as sporty as her usual outfits were. Sasuke and Shikamaru were wearing normal pyjamas; pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt. And Naruto? Spider-man pyjamas.

The eight of them all sat on the twenty-foot-long couch, facing the projector screen. The maids piled snacks of different varieties everywhere. Here was the order:

Naruto Hinata Sakura Sasuke Shikamaru Ino Tenten Neji

Sakura did _not _want to be next to Sasuke at the moment (and Sasuke didn't want to be anywhere near her) but there was no space left. Pillows, stuffed animals and blankets were everywhere. "Alright, so what movie do you guys want to watch?" Neji asked, standing up so that everyone could see him.

"Hell-o!" Ino said immediately. "Definitely romance!"

"Urg," Shikamaru muttered. "I'd say anything _but _romance!" Sasuke and Neji nodded. Naruto was to clueless to see what was wrong with it. Ino frowned at them.

"How about comedy?" Sakura suggested.

"Hm, how does that sound?" asked Neji.

"No thank you," Naruto said. Everyone gasped. Naruto, the biggest prankster in all of Konoha, _didn't want to watch comedy?? _"You guys are probably going to choose a movie that I wouldn't understand half of the jokes to."

Everyone rolled their eyes. "He has a point," Sasuke said with a nod.

"How about horror movies?" Tenten asked, a devious grin sprouting beneath her nose.

"Oh yeah!!" Naruto exclaimed.

"H-horror?" Sakura squeaked.

"No way!" Ino yelled.

"I-I d-don't think that i-it sounds like a good idea," Hinata stuttered.

"Let's take a vote then," Neji said matter-of-factly. "Who doesn't want horror?" Sakura, Ino and Hinata raised their hands in unison. "Alright…now who does want horror?" Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Tenten raised their hands. "So horror it is."

"Noooo!" Ino cried, facing the ceiling as Neji popped the movie in.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura said over Hinata's shoulder. "Why didn't you raise your hand for me?" She pouted at him.

He grinned. "I wanted to watch a scary movie so that I could comfort Hinata when she gets scared!" Hinata blushed and Sakura and Sasuke looked confused. The others were impressed. Naruto was probably doing the best out of all of them in this deal thing. Sometimes they wondered if he was doing it for the dare or on his own accord…

Neji clicked the "play" button and took his seat next to Tenten. Sakura was absolutely horrified. She was an easily-frightened person. Out of nervousness, she absent-mindedly grasped a nearby pillow and held it close to her. As the movie started, she was even too frightened to bother reaching for the sweets piled on the trays before her. Hinata and Ino were acting in a similar way.

The movie was eerie in a way; mysterious. Suddenly, this insanely scary person popped out of no where. No, this wasn't enough to make the young Uchiha flinch, but Sakura, Ino, Hinata and (dare I say) Neji screamed. Naruto and Tenten seemed thrilled rather than scared and Shikamaru looked totally bored (as usual).

It was still the introduction and Sakura was cowering into her pillow. She couldn't take this. Her heart was still pounding from the first thing that had popped up. Ino and Hinata seemed to be in good shape compared to her for goodness sake!

After a few more scary pop-ups, Naruto put his arm around Hinata (who seemed even _more _afraid by his comfort), Ino grabbed Shikamaru and Neji grabbed Tenten (sorry if I'm offending you Neji fans out there for making him like this…). Sakura dove over the couch and hid behind it. Sasuke felt awkwardly alone.

Ten minutes passed by. Sakura was still hiding behind the couch. Ino, Tenten and Neji were screaming. Shikamaru was yawning while Tenten and Naruto were "wooting". Sasuke was annoyed at the huge gap on his right. Sure he was angry at Sakura, but something didn't feel right. Just the thought that she had actually hated him all along… how could that be possible? He was sure, almost _positive _that she had… well… She was different from the other girls. That put her aside from them immediately. This caught Sasuke's interest. They were put on the same team and they made friends. Great friends. And then… she hated him? It didn't make any sense.

By the end of the movie, everyone had fallen asleep (I wonder how? It was a scary movie!), accept for Sasuke, whose mind was quite occupied. "Is it over?" came a shaky voice from behind the couch. Oh yeah. Sakura was still there.

Seeing as none of the other's was going to answer, Sasuke did. "Yeah."

Sakura slowly came around the couch, still looking shaky and holding her pillow. She was surprised to see all of the others sleeping soundly (…accept for Sasuke… how awkward!). She sat down as quietly as she could.

_Silence._

"…"

"…"

"Are we supposed to be talking to each other or something?" Sakura asked quietly. Sasuke said nothing. "Rrgh, why did I even ask?! You never want to talk to me!"

"…"

Sakura huffed and blew an astray strand of hair out of her face. What a jerk! He could at least _try _to help her settle the tension! It was then that he said something rather unexpected.

"Do… do you really hate me?"

"Huh?!" Sakura said (making a "O.O" face and sweat-dropping big time). Where the heck did that come from? "I-," she started, thinking of something good to say. "Of course I don't! I was just angry at you and I… well, I'm sorry, alright?!"

She determinedly started straight ahead; scared to see his facial expression.

"I'm sorry too. You aren't fat."

Sakura fell off the couch. What the heck was going on?!?! Something was definitely wrong with him. He was sick. He was insane. But she liked it better this way.

Grinning to herself, she jumped back onto the couch. "Thanks," she said before leaning on Sasuke's shoulder. He froze and waited for her to get off but it didn't happen. He sighed and he too fell asleep after putting his arm around her and resting his head on hers.

Little did they know, Ino was still awake.

And she had a camera.

**Boy, that chapter sure took me a long time to update. If you've been reading my story for awhile, you'd notice in the chapter's length. I'm really sorry for any confusion! By the way, I finished my other story (it's my favourite one that I've written!). It's called "Mission Accomplished" and if you haven't already read it, maybe you could give it a shot? **

**Thanks for reading! Review Review Review! **

**A few new characters will be introduced next chapter cough- Karin**-**cough!**


	10. Orochimaru hits a soft spot

Declaimer: I don't own any of the characters but this plot is rightfully mine

**Declaimer: I don't own any of the characters but this plot is rightfully mine!!**

**Woot woot! I updated this story at last!! (sorry; I've been pretty busy with 'Mission Accomplished', 'A Twist in Time" and "Let it Snow"…). But don't worry; I'm not giving up to this plot! I just had a lot of stories to update, and I didn't want to make a writing-schedule (I'm sure that all of my fellow writers will be able to sympathize: being forced to write something is such a drag!!) Yeah, if you haven't read the story for a long time, I'd suggest going back to the last chapter and skim through it to refresh your memory. **

**Chapter 10: Orochimaru Hits A Soft Spot **

Sakura awoke the following morning. She opened her eyes a crack… but then a sudden thrill crept up her spine. It was the weekend! She didn't have to wake up! She closed her eyes and nuzzled her face back against her warm, soft pillow. But she opened her eyes again- this time fully. That wasn't a pillow. It was… Sasuke's arm.

Sakura jumped clear off the couch and let out a gasp. Why the heck was Sasuke's arm in her room?! She looked around and saw all of her closest friends: Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, Neji, Tenten… What were they all doing in her-? …Wait. This wasn't her room. She had just slept-over at Neji and Hinata's Mansion for a party. That's right.

Sakura was not a morning person. Clearly her brain wasn't either.

Seeing as she was already awake, Sakura decided to go get ready. She grabbed her small bag of necessities from her back-pack and off she went on a bathroom-hunt.

When she returned, Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Ino were all still sleeping. Neji was gone and Hinata was sitting upright. Naruto, who had fallen asleep with his arms around her, was still in that position and Hinata looked absolutely petrified. Sakura smirked when their eyes met. But Hinata's face turned pink. Then red. Then bright red. Then purple. Then blue. Then white. She had fainted.

Tenten had her feet stretched across the couch and her head was hanging off the armrest. Shikamaru looked at peace and Ino looked dead. Sasuke still looked cool (even though he was sleeping) and Naruto was drooling on Hinata's shoulder. Sakura's best friends were all so different… Well, you know what they say: Opposites attract!

A maid came scurrying into the room. "Ms. Haruno! You're awake?" she said with a gasp. Sakura nodded slowly. The maid placed a hand over her mouth and scurried back out of the room. Confused, Sakura plopped down into a plush bean-bag chair and absent-mindedly gazed at her sleeping friends. Her moment of relaxation was soon ruined when over thirty maids all burst into the room.

"Whoa!" Sakura said, standing up. "What the heck's going on?!"

One of them bowed. "We're sorry for not coming earlier!" she said.

"We really should have checked more frequently!" another added.

"So what do you want? Are you hungry?"

"-Thirsty?"

"-Comfy?"

"Need a hot shower?"

"Do you-"

"I'M FINE!" Sakura burst out. The crowd of maids jumped with surprise. "I mean… I'll… um… be able to take care of myself. Thanks for offering though," she said sheepishly, trying to cover up her previous outburst. The maids all nodded and ran out of the room.

Tenten sat up. "Wuzzat?" she slurred, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Loose strands were falling from the buns in her hair and her shirt was matted. What a restless sleeper. She looked around. "Where's Neji?" she asked.

Sakura shrugged. "Dunno. He was gone when I got up," she replied.

"Really?!" Tenten said with a gasp and running out of the room. Where could she have gotten that energy?  
Ino had also been awoken by Sakura's yell. Uh oh. "GOODMORNING GUYS!" she squealed into Shikamaru's ear. "WAS EVERYONE AWAKE BEFORE ME?!"

Shikamaru stuck his index finger into his ear to save it from any more damage it would have to face. "Well… I'm sure everyone is _now_…," he said with a sigh and rolling off the couch. Ino dived off.

Now only Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke were sleeping. Everyone let them be and continued getting ready. This was followed by a nice conversation over the breakfast table. They had a choice of pancakes, waffles, croissants, Danishes or bread with a glass of orange, apple or tropical juice. Sasuke shuffled in soon after. After flashing her a smirk, he sat down next to Sakura. Unbeknownst to the two of them, the others had also exchanged glances.

When breakfast was over, they all returned to the Party Room to find Naruto and Hinata still sleeping on the couch. "Aw that's so cute," Ino said with a girly, little sigh. "Maybe we should take a picture of them too?"

"Too?" Sasuke and Sakura repeated, but they received no answer. Ino took out her camera, but by then, Hinata had started to regain consciousness and Naruto began to stir. While to two of them ate, the remainder of the gang got ready (accept for Sakura and Neji ((who Tenten had found))). Predictably, Neji started to ask Sakura various questions about her final opinion of the party's turn-out. "Everything was absolutely perfect," she said for the fifth time.

"Are you sure? Did you find the service slow in any way or-,"

"No. Everything was great." _If anything though, the service was almost _too_ fast! _Sasuke was ready soon afterwards. He tossed his bag onto the floor and took his seat on the couch. Sakura greeted him with a wave and he returned it with a small smile. The others began to file in soon afterwards, they all relaxed on the couch, and then-

"NEJI SIR!"

The gang spun around to the entrance of the room, and saw _another_ crowd of maids rushing into the room. One of them stepped forwards. After curtsying, she stuttered, "I-I don't mean to cause a disruption or a-anything… but I suppose that I sh-should remind you about your appointment-,"

"MY APPOINTMENT?!" Neji gasped, standing abruptly. "I totally forgot! Um… sorry guys, but I've got to go…"

Everyone waved or shouted "Bye!" (accept for Tenten, who had run up to him to shake his hand). Once he was gone, Ino asked Hinata, "What is the appointment for?"

For some reason, Hinata blushed. "Well… he usually doesn't want people to know about this… and he covers it up by saying that it's a dentist appointment… but I figured out that it wasn't because he goes every week…"

"Well, what's it for?"

"… His hair." Their jaws dropped, and Naruto, Ino and Tenten even burst out laughing. "N-no, it's not like that!" Hinata continued. "He only goes because my father complains about his split ends." Tenten and Ino stopped laughing out of understanding, but Naruto's laughing only got louder, so Sakura bonked him on the head.

"I don't see what's so funny about that," Sasuke said with a shrug. "My father's always complaining about _my_ hair… (well _my everything_, really)… so I go get it done every once in awhile."

"Oh-ho! Here we go with the whole impressing-of-the-parents thing again!" Naruto said, the volume of his laughter still increasing. Appalled, Sakura shot him a death-glare. Sasuke tried to ignore this rude remark. Then Naruto's eyes lit up. "Wait, wait! Hold that thought! I want everyone to close their eyes!" Funny looks were shot at him from all directions, but he took no notice and continued. "Alright… I want you to picture Sasuke and Neji sitting in a beauty salon, with cucumbers over their eyes, foil and hair-curlers in their hair, wearing fuzzy, pink slippers and bath-robes, getting a manicure and pedicure-," and from here Naruto went on and on. Sasuke looked ready to die. The others were all laughing (accept for Sakura), until Naruto said, "-and then Neji would take that little note-pad out of his pocket and say something like, 'OMG! We, like, really have to do this again some time! Are ya free next Saturday?' and then Sasuke would say, 'No, daddy's got a full-body massage, like, booked for me. How about after the game on Monday? I'm totally free.'" Unable to stop herself, Sakura laughed. It was small, hardly noticeable, but seeing how she was sitting right across from Sasuke, and seeing how she had been the only one who _hadn't_ been laughing moments previously, Sasuke noticed it. His facial expression was horrifying. It was a mix of one who had been betrayed and was furious. He stood up.

Everyone's laughing faded as Sasuke grabbed his bag and stormed out of the room without backwards glance. The party ended soon afterwards.

The rest of the weekend was generally un-eventless, unlike the party. Sakura spent the majority of the weekend gathering information for her project, and after calling Hinata to see what homework she had missed on Thursday, and unfortunately, she learned that she had homework in all of her other classes too. She had everything she needed to finish her English and Math homework… but she didn't have her Chemistry textbook with her. She doubted that Naruto did either, and seeing how Sasuke was so mad at her, he wouldn't lend her his… she was toast. Man would Orochimaru ever be mad. She felt very guilty for laughing at Sasuke at the party… but after thinking about it for awhile, it was his _own_ fault. If he'd just loosen up and stop acting like a sensitive, old fart, he would have nothing to worry about. Then he would have been able to see that Naruto had only been joking. But still… Naruto had known that Sasuke was having issues with his parents… and Naruto had been down-right rude to blurt it out like that in a joking matter. By the end of her thinking-session, Sakura was able to come up with four conclusions: Number 1: Sasuke was mad at her. Number 2: She was mad at Naruto. Number 3: Naruto was either mad at, jealous of or just rude to Sasuke. And Number 4: This was going to be a long year.

She got one phone call from Naruto (where he asked her what their project was about). She made sure to hang up quickly. Besides Sunday afternoon, nothing of great significance happened. On Sunday afternoon, Sakura's mother had asked her to run up to a grocery store to pick up some milk, eggs, soup and pancake-mix. Seeing as she had nothing better to do, Sakura agreed and off she went. It took her a little while to find an actual grocery store, and once she did, she was slightly disappointed to find that it was built much larger than the grocery stores she had gone to in her old neighbourhood. _Hopefully the food isn't more expensive…_ She had no problems finding the eggs and milk in the cold section, but there were just so many isles that she didn't know where to start looking for the pancake-mix and the soup! Then Sakura did what she did best and asked someone for directions. She tapped a stranger on the shoulder. "Excuse me? I was just-…" but her voice trailed off. Once the stranger had turned, she couldn't believe her eyes. "G-Gaara!" she gasped. "Wow, the chances of that! The last time she had asked someone for directions, it was Gaara who she had asked.

The red-haired, pale-skinned, tattooed and eye-liner-wearing guy (again, she assumed that he was gothic or emo or something like that), turned around to face her fully. His dull, blue eyes widened a little, but his mouth stayed in a firm, grim line and he said nothing. "Um, hi," Sakura said, giving him a flimsy, nervous, little wave. He regarded it with a nod. "I was just wondering if you knew where I could find some pancake mix," she said innocently and putting her hands behind her back, twiddling her fingers.

Wordlessly, he started walking away. Sakura stared at him, dumbfounded. Was he ignoring her? What was it with her and guys getting angry with her anyways?! First it was Sasuke, and now this-

"Are you coming?"

Sakura was snapped out of her daydreams. "O-oh! Right! Yeah, I'm coming!" She felt guilty for misjudging him. Gaara helped her find the pancake-mix and he helped her pick out a kind of soup. "Thanks," she said afterwards.

Gaara nodded again. "Need anything else?" he asked. She shook her head and smiled. "Alright, see you at the game tomorrow," he said before drifting off. _Oh yeah, the game!_ Sakura thought. _Oh gosh, and I missed our one and only practice too! I'm going to look so lost on that field! I don't even know what position I'm playing! _

School on Monday was very long and awkward. In English class, Kakashi noticed that squad 7 wasn't cooperating quite as smoothly as they had been on Friday's field-trip. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke would only speak to each other if there were no other options available, for example: when Naruto asked Sakura to borrow a pencil, or when Sasuke asked Naruto to move his 'big-head' out of the way because he couldn't see the board. Thankfully, Kakashi didn't give them any homework because he had given them so much to do for the book report on the weekend.

Chemistry was a nightmare for Sakura. Not only was the homework-load unbearable, but Orochimaru told her that 'he did not tolerate incomplete work and that there were no acceptations.'

"But I wasn't at school on Thursday and I didn't have my textbook with me over the weekend!" she pleaded, but she knew that she was fighting a losing battle. "I called Hinata and she told me about the work, but I couldn't do it."

Orochimaru didn't look very sympathetic. "Well, why didn't you just borrow one of your team-mates books?" he offered, searching for an excuse to punish her. "I'm sure Naruto or Sasuke wouldn't have minded sharing." Although the class was supposed to be doing seat-work, Sakura had a feeling that most of the class was listening in on their conversation instead. She didn't know how to answer this time. It wasn't like she was going to tell him that they had an argument… well it wasn't actually an argument, but it was something along those lines she supposed. If she told him, he'd want to get the inside scoop so he could find more reasons to punish herself and Naruto. "Well, seeing how you can't come up with any other excuses," Orochimaru said with a sly smirk, "you are going to have to stay after class for a detention."

Sakura gaped at him. "D-detention?" she stuttered. A detention all by herself? _With Orochimaru?_ That was just too much! This was crazy! Sakura, the little goody-goody was getting a _detention_?!"Couldn't I just finish the questions tonight?"

"I'm being generous, you know," he said. "I could have scheduled it for after school, and would that ever be a pity: you'd miss your big, opening match. Wouldn't you rather miss lunch and play on an empty stomach than not play at all?"

"Yes sir," she said, bowing her head and shuffling back to her desk. Unfortunately, she was seated right in between Sasuke and Naruto, who had obviously heard the entire conversation. Naruto shot her a meek glance, and since she didn't blow up or punch him for looking at her, he patted her on the shoulder, comfortingly. Hinata, Ino and Tenten gave her encouraging stares, but all she got from Sasuke was a shake of the head. She couldn't even believe it when he gave her a smug look that seemed to say, "You deserved that." Well, that sure didn't make her feel any better.

She spent lunch alone in the classroom, accept for Orochimaru who was staring at her the entire time. Her punishment was to finish all of the homework questions (plus a few more) before the end of the lunch period, or else she _would _have a detention after school and miss the soccer game.

Sakura met her friends in the math class, feeling humiliated and hungry. The class was long and boring- they spent most of the time correcting work and starting a new unit. Luckily, they hadn't received any homework, but at the end of class, Kureni called Sakura over to the teacher's desk. _What now?!_ Sakura thought. "Orochimaru pulled me aside between classes," Kureni said, "and he told me about your detention." Sakura slapped her forehead. _Don't tell me I'm going to get into _more_ trouble!_ "And then I met with Tsunade, the principal-," she added and Sakura nodded, "-who is also the assistant coach for the soccer team-,"

"Really?!" Sakura exclaimed. Wow, that must have been announced last practice! Sakura cheered inwardly. _Yes! I'm not going to be the only girl anymore!_

"Yes, really," Kureni said with a smile. "Well anyways, Tsunade is very angry with Orochimaru, you see. I believe that she is going to have a word with him. She doesn't think that it's right that you weren't allowed to eat lunch, especially on a game day and _especially_ because this team represents the entire school and _especially_ because Gai thinks that you are one of the best players on the team." Sakura's eyes widened. Boy, she hadn't seen that coming! "So anyways," Kureni continued, "then I talked to Asuma, who is your next teacher, right? He's also my husband. And he said that he'd have no problem if you brought your lunch to his class."

Sakura couldn't believe her ears. "W-wow," she said, amazed.

"Run along, now," Kureni said, waving her away. "You don't want to be late for class."

Before leaving, Sakura gave her a hug. "Thanks, Kureni-sensei!" she said. Kureni chuckled as Sakura left the room.

At her locker, her friends gathered around to ask her what had gone wrong. "Oh it's nothing like that!" Sakura said with a grin. "Kureni-sensei just told me that Tsunade is the new soccer coach, and that she's mad at Orochimaru for not letting me eat, and that she had a word with her husband, who is really Asuma-sensei, and now I'm allowed to eat in his class!" Only the girls and Shikamaru were able to understand such speedy rambling. The other boys didn't even bother. All they knew was that something good was going on.

In History class, they were given some time to discuss what still needed to be done for the project. After all, it was due on Thursday and this was only their second-last period they had to work on it. Sasuke, who had been gathering information on Canadian history (famous people, events, wars, dates, etc…), had eight pages of information from various sources- all of the key points highlighted with side-notes and pictures at the back. Sakura, who had been researching Canada's predicted future according to statistics (such as immigration and emigrations rates, climate increases and decreases, the population distribution, etc…), and she had already written up a two-page speech to summarize all of her information, along with pictures and a half-page of personal reflection. Sasuke and Sakura were both pleased with each others work, but of course, they wouldn't say anything out loud.

This left Naruto.

Naruto had been assigned… no, not assigned: he had _chosen_ to write about Canada's present day (including politics and government-systems, the quality of life, the current national-symbols, their relations with other countries, etc…). "So… Naruto, what have you done so far?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Well, I'm not finished," Naruto admitted, "but I did find some good national symbols."

"Let's see them then," Sasuke said.

Naruto fumbled through his orange binder and pulled out a slightly-crumpled and stained piece of lined paper. "A-hem," Naruto began, reading the words he had jotted down. "As a matter of fact, not only did I _write_ down the information, I also drew pictures to go with it." The other two nodded, preparing for the worst. "The national symbols of Canada: the hockey stick (because they watch hockey), the beer bottle (because they drink it as they watch hockey), the beer belly (because this is what they get if they watch and drink too much), maple syrup (because they put it on all of their food), the igloo (because they live in igloos), the moose (because they ride them instead of using cars) _and_ the letters 'E' and 'H' (because if you put them together, you get the word 'eh?', which is what Canadians say at the end of every sentence)." Naruto drew a breath and folded his arms confidently.

Sasuke had his head in his hands. "I-I'm guessing you came up with all of this on your own," Sakura said with a twitch.

"Yup! Every word! I already know everything by heart!" Naruto exclaimed with seeping pride.Sakura raised her hand. "Asuma-sensei! Can we please go to the library?"

In the library, Sasuke started writing up his speech, and Sakura help Naruto find some new information.

**Ha! Sorry if any Canadians are offended by that! But you should know that I don't mean anything insulting by that because I AM Canadian! After all, we all know that it's just a stereo-type! Alright then, I'm not ending the chapter there… so… on with the story!**

With a freshly-filled belly, Sakura felt ready to puke.

Gee, Sasuke and Naruto really hadn't filled her in on what she had missed at practice! As she made her mad-dash down the hallways, glancing in classroom windows, skidding around corners and crashing into lockers, Sakura was searching for Gai's office. Shouldn't Sakura be at the game-? Yes, but not just yet. Thankfully, the team had been dismissed 25 minutes early from the last block for preparations and warm-ups. She had been dismissed at 2 sharp rather than 2:25, and the game started at 3. Plenty of time, right? Wrong.

While on her way to the change-rooms with Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Rock Lee, Kiba and Choji, she had suddenly realized that she had nothing to change _into_. It was then Naruto told her that they had received their jerseys at the previous practice. "What?" Sakura said with a gasp. "You could have told me that before!"

"Gai is in his office!" someone called as she started pelting down the hallway (without a clue as to where she was going). After glancing over her shoulder, she was surprised to see Gaara again.

She ran down random hallways for five minutes. _Man, I really should have asked for directions,_ Sakura thought. The only lead she had was that he was somewhere on the first floor, near the gym… but how near? After minutes of running herself in circles, she decided that it would be best to just head back and wait for Gai to arrive. She spun on the ball of her foot and headed back in the other direction, but then she paused. Where was the gym?!

She started running down a hall, and once she arrived at the end of it, she was greeted with another set of halls to choose from, and down those halls, she could see the beginnings of other halls… Oh perfect. She was lost. And she only had 15 minutes left until the pre-game warm-up and 45 minutes until the game itself. Despite her fear of getting more lost than she already was, Sakura continued to run… and run… and run. _I'd better not wear myself out before the game actually starts…! Where the heck _am_ I?!_ She spotted her Chemistry classroom and relief overcame her… until she realized that the Chemistry classroom was on the second floor. She paused. Wait, only moments ago she had been at the gym which is on the _first_ floor. How could she be on the second floor if she hadn't even climbed any stairs?! _Oh crap, I must have been carried to a different floor by those ramps! _And then, just to make the mood turn from bad to worse, Orochimaru himself came out of the room.

He began walking the other way without noticing her, and Sakura prayed that he _wouldn't_ notice her, so she began sneaking back in the other direction when… "Haruno!" he barked, whipping his head back around. "You'd better have a good reason for loitering outside of my classroom!"

Loitering? Heck, she wasn't even _wandering_! She was lost! But it wasn't like Orochimaru was going to give her the time of day to tell him that (especially after Tsunade had taken _her_ side when she was the one who had received a detention). Sakura really didn't need another punishment at the moment, so after bowing low she said, "My greatest apologies, sir. I was just on the way to the gym. I am sincerely sorry for any disruption that I may have caused." She ended it with a salute and a smile.

"Don't mock me, little girl!" he surprisingly bellowed, striding forwards and snatching her arm. She could feel his sharp nails piercing her skin and his grip only tightened. "I understand that some of the teachers have chosen to take your side, but that does NOT mean that you have the authority to abandon showing me the respect that I deserve, because you and I both know the _truth_!"

Her mouth went dry and her blood ran cold. What the heck was he talking about? Was it legal to be holding a student like this? "W-What truth…?" she asked slowly as she started to feel tears well up in her eyes.

"_You should know what I'm talking about!_" he snapped, grabbing her other shoulder and shaking her. "You enter my class acting all high and mighty! You suck up to all the teachers and turn them all against me! Are you _trying_ to get me fired, because this sounds like a pretty darn unlikely coincidence! Next time you step foot into my classroom and decide to use more of that attitude, I suggest that you remember this: You are not in the same league as your classmates and you never will be. You need to shake off a bit of that confidence because you don't even deserve to be in the same room as Sasuke or the Hyuuga's… or anyone else! All you are is a poor, selfish brat!"

He let her go and stormed out of sight, leaving Sakura to cripple onto the ground, her face covered in freshly-spilled tears. She hid it with her hands, but was unable to stifle her sobs that echoed through the empty hallway. He was right, wasn't he? And that's exactly what she'd been worrying about all through the first week: she didn't deserve to be here. Not in this expensive place. Not with these rich people. Not with Sasuke or her other friends. She had nothing to offer, and she was ashamed of herself. She got good grades and was a decent soccer player, grant her that, but in the long-run, she wouldn't be able to last here. Did it show? Had it been showing all along? Well, if Orochimaru had been able to spot it, then her friends were certainly capable of noticing that she was… different. And she stayed there, weeping by the Chemistry room, her cries growing louder.

"SAKURA!"  
She quickly stood, wiping her eyes on her sleeves, but before she could steady herself, she was locked in an eye-poppingly tight hug. "I-Ino!" she gasped between hiccoughs.

"You are going to tell me now, woman: What is wrong with you?! The boys told me that you went off to look for Gai, and when Gai arrived, you weren't there, and we were all so worried! The team wanted to help search for you, but they weren't allowed to so-…Wait, are you crying?" she said suddenly when she felt Sakura's body jump with every stifled sob. Ino let her go. "Oh my gosh… what happened to you?!" she burst out after she finally saw her face. Sakura's eyes were red and puffy, her face was drenched and she was trembling all over. Just to top it off, a drop of blood trickled down from under her sleeve where Orochimaru's claw-like nails had pierced her.

"I-I… y-you wouldn't be-believe m-m-me…," she stuttered, her insides cringing at the thought of telling her friends about her inner-battles.

"Try me," Ino said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but by then, Shikamaru poked his head around the corner.

"You found her?" he asked. "Well, we'd better head back. Gai's found her a jersey, the team's waiting for her and not to mention all of the people waiting for _us_," he said, grabbing Ino by the hand. Sakura used the wall to pull herself into an upright position. "Oh, are you ok?" he said, noticing that she was off-balance and fighting back tears.

"No, she is _not_ ok, idiot!" Ino yelled. "And if she doesn't tell me _why_, I'll force it out of her!"

Sakura raised a hand to silence her. "Shh! Yeah, I'll t-tell you guys. Just… not here." She had a feeling that Orochimaru might still be prowling around one of the corners. Ino and Shikamaru led her back down to the gym as she told them the story. Both of their expressions were shocked.

"You're kidding! If any of the other teachers hear about this, he'll lose his job!" Shikamaru said with amazement.

"Darn right they'll hear about it!" Ino said, outraged. "I can't believe this! That stupid, old snake, trying to crush your pride… and right before a game too! Well, if he _doesn't_ get what he deserves from the other teachers, he'll certainly get it from me! He'll be out of this town before he can even-," and so on and so forth. Sakura greatly appreciated their encouragement, but she was still feeling horrible.

When they parted (Ino and Shikamaru had set off to their booth where they were selling soccer-merchandise), Sakura went straight to the soccer field where her team was already doing laps around the field. She approached Gai, who was holding out a silver and blue jersey (along with a pair of shorts and socks). "I got you the smallest size there was, because after all, they are in men sizes. And look, you're lucky number 8! How about that! Well, you'd better hurry up because- hey, are you ok?" he suddenly asked, noticing her puffy eyes.

"Fine," Sakura replied, turning on her heal and running back into the school to change. She hadn't meant to be rude, but she figured that it couldn't be good for her reputation as a soccer player if she looked like she could be pushed around- especially because she was the only girl on her team (and she needed to prove that she could keep up). After strapping on her shin-guards, lacing up her cleats, pulling on her jersey, jumping into her shorts and trying back her hair, she raced back to the field. It was then that she realized just how many spectators were there. Four bleachers were filled to the brim, and there were also rows of people sitting and standing around them. Clearly, most of the students had decided to stay after school to watch the game, along with a handful of the teachers and staff. She spotted Ino and Shikamaru's kiosk, which she couldn't see very well because of the crowds blocking her view. She brought her attention back to the field, where her team was in the center stretching (with Gai and Tsunade on the side-lines organizing the starting line-up). The other team from the Village Hidden in the Mist (who were wearing white) were starting a shooting drill.

Her eyes met Tsunade's for a moment. They both smiled and Tsunade motioned for her to join the team. Rock Lee was leading the stretches (well… they didn't actually look like stretches; they looked more like yoga positions. Man was that Lee guy ever strange!). Some people were trying to follow him, like Naruto and Kiba, Choji _couldn't_ follow him because his arms and legs weren't long enough to perform most of the stretches, and Sasuke, Neji, Gaara and a few others were doing their own. Sakura snuck into the circle next to Gaara, hoping not to be noticed (at least, not until her eyes weren't supporting tears in the corners). But unfortunately and as expected, Naruto spotted her immediately. "Sakura!" he exclaimed running out of his position in the circle and giving her a bear-hug. "We thought you were lost!"

"I was," she replied quietly. "Thanks for your concern."

Naruto backed away and gave her a funny look. "There's something different about you. What's wrong?" he asked, folding his arms. Lee peeked over his shoulder and the others also began to crowd around her. She started to feel very uncomfortable.

"I-I'm fine," she said, her voice rising slightly.

"Well, what happened to your eyes then?" Kiba asked quizzically.

"Guess I must have gotten something in them," she said bluntly, wiping them on the back of her sleeve. Most of the team look unconvinced, but otherwise, they left her alone.

After the yoga/ stretching, Gai got the team to do a passing drill, and then immediately called them all in for a pep-talk. Seeing as there wasn't any space left on the bench, Sakura and a couple of the others either sat on the grass, or stood behind the bench. Sasuke kneeled down next to Sakura and asked very silently, "What happened?"

"Tell you and Naruto later," she mouthed back. The subject was dropped and they refocused on the game.

Tsunade stepped forward and started the talk. "Here, before we get out there, I'm going to fill you all in on the other team. First of all, their coach, called Zabuza the Demon, is a slave-driver. This team has been practicing and training together for a number of years. I don't mean to scare you, but this is probably the worst team that we could have been matched up against for the opening game. Seeing how we've barely had _one_ practice as a team, the only way that we can win this today is if we use some of our raw talent and try to work together. I'll be calling several time-outs if I see that our positioning is getting out of hand, and during them and the half-time break, we'll formulate a few plays. Any question so far?" she asked. A chill was sent through each and every one of them. _She's right,_ Sakura thought. _It's going to be so much harder for us. I don't even know everybody's name yet!_

Gai then stood up. "Alright kids, I've got the starting line-up. Starting Keeper: Choji. The Strikers: Naruto and Kiba. Your job is to attack the net. The Right-Winger will be Lee and the Left-Winger will be Sakura. You guys are the runners. You've got to make yourself available to both the defenders and offenders when needed. Sasuke and Gaara, you are the center mids. Gaara, I would like you to stay behind Sasuke and support the Stopper. Sasuke, you will be supporting the Strikers. You two are the brains of the team: you are the play-setters and it is your duty to look out for things that your team-mates may not have spotted. Neji, you are playing Stopper. Your job is to take out every player that comes anywhere near the goalie. You're the starting point of every play." Then Gai picked the Sweeper and the two outside defenders, who were all people who Sakura didn't know. They had 7 subs starting on the bench, making a total of 18 players.

The whistle sounded and the crowd began to cheer. This was it.

The tension arose when the team gathered into their final huddle and put their hands in the middle. Players shouted words of encouragement like, "This is our game!", "Let's start it off strong!", "Let's whip their butts!" or "If we win this, Sasuke will treat us all to ramen!" (the last comment was responded with Sasuke saying "Hey!"). Then they did their cheer: "One, two three, GO NINJA'S!"

They lined up on the field, discussing strategies to the players around them until the ref called, "Keepers ready?" Choji and the opposing goalie raised their hands. "Alright then, begin!" he said, bringing his hand down and blowing the whistle once again.

TWEET!

The crowd went wild.

The game had begun.

**I'll try to update ASAP…**


	11. Mishap Overflow

Declaimer: I don't own any of the characters but this plot is rightfully mine

**Declaimer: I don't own any of the characters but this plot is rightfully mine!!**

**Hey guys! Sorry, that was the crappiest ASAP ever! I've been really crammed with exams, soccer, basketball and lots of other things! I use quite a few technical soccer-terms in this chapter, and if you have any questions about their meanings, don't hesitate to ask! Yeah, I've been excited for this one… so why wait? Let's go! (Oh yeah, since it's been awhile, I'd suggest scanning through last chapter to refresh your memory! It might help because this one continued directly from it!)**

**Chapter 11: Mishap Overflow**

The opposing striker made a quick pass to his partner. It was time to get this show on the road, and Kiba took them head-on and won the battle. Kiba now had the ball. "You have support!" Neji called, and then Kiba passed it back to Sasuke, who killed the ball (stopped it) and started running up the field. Gaara took his place. Sakura and Lee made runs up the wings of the field in zig-zag patterns, hoping to shake off the players covering them. Sakura noticed a couple of the defenders give her curious looks (because, after all, hardly any girls played in this league), but she ignored them. This was not the time to be thinking. At all. Naruto and Kiba had already run forwards and were standing on the rim of the goal-box. Lee and Sakura were on the outsides of the box, Sasuke was just behind the two strikers (the three of them forming a triangle), and Gaara was a little ways behind him with the ball. Neji and the other defenders had moved up slightly past the half-line, trying to force some of the other players to be off-side.

Lee was amazingly fast and was running all over the place on the right side, looking for a pass. But unfortunately for him, the other team noticed this and a few extra players went to cover him. Little did they know, this was all part of his initial plan. It opened the left side of the field right up. Sakura didn't seem like much of a threat at the moment, and only one player was standing within a 2 metre radius of her. She smirked when Gaara passed her the ball and she danced around her opponent. She was in the perfect shooting-range at the moment, but the other team had obviously noticed that too and started closing in on her. She made a quick step-over (a quick trick where you step over the ball and spin to face the opposite direction) to see what other options she had. Sasuke, Gaara and Lee were all closely-covered, and Naruto and Kiba were too deep in the swarm of white players for her to risk passing to them. Then she spotted Neji.

He started his swift, speedy and generally unnoticeable run up from mid-field. Seeing as there was no time for hesitation, Sakura kicked the ball a good 5 metres back towards their end of the field. She could feel her team-mates' surprise, and one of the players on her bench had even shouted, "What the heck is she doing?!" Neji reacted to her play beautifully. Taking advantage of the ball already being in motion, he fired it back towards the net with triple the amount power and… _TING!_... it hit the crossbar.

The crowd "OOOHH!"-ed, Neji gritted his teeth, the players on the field finally realized what had been going on, and Gai shouted, "Nice demonstration of youthful power, Neji! That was the right idea, Sakura!" She smiled and the game continued. With that starting burst of energy, the team was feeling indefectible. They dominated the first 10 minutes of the game, and just before the first shift-change, Naruto had a mad-break towards the net. He wasn't a very technical player, but that guy was incredibly powerful and unstoppable. Sakura, Lee, Kiba and Sasuke were all close behind him. Naruto carried the ball all the way out of their defensive zone and well-into the offensive end. The crowd was going wild. But then some of the defenders started running towards him like a wall, and quickly realizing that there was no way that he'd be able to get through, he shouted, "Help!"

Sakura's mind found the answer. As she ran past Sasuke, she said, "Set up for a give-and-go!" For a half-second, she was almost worried that he wouldn't listen to her. But she had no time to be thinking like that. She sprinted past Naruto, still on the wing, and then she yelled, "Wall pass!" Relieved, Naruto gave her the ball. She one-touched it up-field, where Sasuke was headed. He shot it… right into the top-corner! The goalie had nearly collided with the post trying to make the save, but his efforts had been in vain because he hadn't managed to get it!

The crowd erupted. The team gathered around Sasuke, and he received several encouraging slaps on the back (accept for Naruto, who gave him a hard punch on the arm). Gai called a sub, and Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all called off. "Excellent teamwork, you three!" he exclaimed, giving them all a high-five. Naruto was the only person (besides the people playing for or supporting the other team) who was frowning. "Aw Sakura, why didn't you pass it to me so _I_ could score?"

Sasuke, who seemed to be forgetting that he was angry with her, said, "That's because she knows how much better I am. Right Sakura?" he asked with an evil smirk. This earned him a slap on the back of the head.

"I'm not going to pick favourites," she said, rolling her eyes while chugging down some water. She glanced across the field and saw that the people in the stands were still going wild. The line-up's for Ino and Shikamaru's little booth was getting longer and longer. _Wow, I really should check it out later,_ Sakura thought with interest. She also noticed the cheerleaders, who were running around and shaking pom-poms wherever they went. Sakura recognized many of them as Sasuke's fangirls. There was one of them that seemed to be leading the others- she had red hair and glasses of what Sakura could see, and was wearing a belly-top and spandex booty-shorts. She cringed. How could people wear things like that?

Rock Lee, Neji and Gaara were the only players who hadn't been subbed off. Although the score was unchanged by the end of this shift, it hadn't been entirely eventless. Choji had performed a few incredible saves (which was quite surprising; who would have guessed that he'd be able to lift his weight?), and Neji became the official star defender and ball-clearer (kicking the ball all the way into the other end), after he stole the ball, deaked-out 3 others and then sent it out to the other end. Sakura could hear Tenten's screams from the bleachers on the other end. Gaara proved himself to be really skilled as well because he, as the center mid, set up a nearly-perfect play (if only the striker had managed to get his foot on it, it would have been a sure goal). Rock Lee ran the other team into a tizzy, and he started the following shift with a beautiful goal to the bottom corner (Gai was going wild at this point).

The score was unchanged by the end of the half; 2-O for Konoha High.

This was a great lead, but unfortunately, they started to get a little overconfident. They all pulled into a huddle at the half-time break and Gai added a few encouraging contributors to their expanding egos. "You're all displaying power and individual talent! Keep up the good work!" They all clapped and thumped each other on the backs.

Tsunade stepped in. "But there is always room for improvement, right?" she said, and the team muttered in agreement. "For example, we especially need to work on finishing and perfecting our plays, am I right? Especially pulling the shot off! We've had several excellent plays, but just can't seem to finish them!" She paused. "But as Gai said, we _are_ playing very well. Some of you seem like you've been playing together for years! I'd like to see more of that next half!"

Gai seemed a little surprised. "W-why thank you, Tsunade! You're right! Now team, let's get out there! Bring it in guys!"

"ONE-"

"-TWO-"

"-THREE!"

"GO NINJAS!"

"We really need a new cheer," Naruto groaned. "It should be like a song or something. And we should have some sort of dance to go with it."

And so, they took their positions and started at the sound of the whistle. The other team was starting with the ball. Naruto and Kiba recklessly charged, but this only gave the other team an opportunity to dance around them, now with two less players in the way. Rock Lee was caught off-momentum, so he didn't have a chance. Sakura gritted her teeth. There wasn't much she could do on the complete opposite side of the field. She shifted over towards the middle to cover open players. Sasuke managed to tackle the player with the ball without being called for a foul (luckily), but he was immediately caught in a swarm of opponents. It was hard to tell what happened at this point, but moments later, the other players had the ball and Sasuke was lying on the ground. He scrambled to his feet—determination and fury in his eyes—but it was too late. Gaara and Neji had been subbed off, and the other defenders didn't stand a chance.

One of the opposing strikers gracefully weaved through the rest of the defence and shot a low ball to the corner, unfortunately passed Choji's arm-span. A small portion of the crowd cheered (the ones who had traveled from the Land of Waves). The players on the other bench started to chant: "HA-KU! HA-KU! HA-KU!" who Sakura assumed was their goal-scorer. Zabuza the Demon was grinning in a manically disturbing way. Sakura cringed. She didn't like this. The other team's confidence was building. And to top it off, some of her own team-mates were starting to get a little edgy.

Neji and Gaara were swearing on the bench, wishing they'd been on the field to stop the goal. Lee was sobbing quietly in the corner, disappointed that he had failed his master, Gai. Kiba was angry with the defenders. "If Shino had been on the team, he never would have let something like this happen! These guys should be kicked off!"

Naturally, Naruto was also looking for others to blame. "Sasuke! What the hell happened to you back there?!"

Sasuke shot him a reproachful glare. "I didn't fall on my own, idiot. And besides, you're one to talk! Why did you charge at them like that?!"

"I was trying to get the ball!"

"That's it! Everyone bring it in!" Tsunade thundered over the bickering. "We need everyone to calm down! We're a team and need to work through this together! Got it?"

"We still have a lead," Sakura piped up. All eyes turned to her. She didn't usually speak up. "We're still the better team and we've got nothing to worry about."

"But what about that Haku-guy?" Kiba asked. "We can't keep up with him!"

"And the other defenders are stacked! We can't beat them either!"

"Listen!" Sakura suddenly snapped. "We've already scored twice! Who says we can't do it again?"

A silence followed.

"Well said," Gaara muttered with a small smile, breaking the silence.

"She's right," Sasuke added. "We shouldn't be getting so worked up over one goal."

Others shouted in agreement and the tension began to loosen. Gai frowned because he had nothing to contribute. The ref blew the whistle twice, and motioned for the team to get back on the field. The next few shifts were strong and solid. They didn't give the other team any other chances to score. They also came close a few times—on one play, Gaara sent Lee a brilliant through-ball, which led to a break-away. The goalie ran out and snatched the ball before he had a chance to get a shot in, but the play itself was ingenious. Gaara was an excellent play-setter.

At the beginning of the last shift, Haku trapped and controlled a goal kick and began his break towards the net. He shot passed Gaara, and surprisingly Neji, who wasn't able to keep up with him in the footrace. Haku had nearly beaten the sweeper, when the sweeper shockingly aimed a kick right for Haku's knee. Haku barely managed to dodge it and lost the ball, but the ref called it as a foul and awarded Zabuza's team with a penalty-kick (because it had been in the goal-box).

"What WAS that?!" Tsunade hollered from the bench. The sweeper shrugged and Tsunade put her head in her hands. Gai was gritting his teeth, and the rest of the Ninja's were very surprised and angry.

"I _knew_ Shino should have been recruited! That guy's going to mess everything up!" Kiba said with a scowl. No one argued.

Unfortunately the other team scored.

And from here, the game came to a sudden end.

Confidence and egos were drained.

Disappointment consumed their previously encouraged hearts and minds.

They crossed the field after they had removed their socks and shins. Most of the crowd was still there, applauding politely, but they were obviously disappointed as well. Sakura shuffled along, not quite sure how much more she could take. After her encounter with Orochimaru, she wanted nothing more than to burry her face into a pillow so she wouldn't have to face any other-

"_Sakura Haruno!_" called a voice Sakura didn't recognize. She turned and was bewildered to find herself facing the cheerleader with the booty shorts. Sakura took a step forwards.

"You… called me?" she asked.

"Oh yes!" said the cheerleader, with a falsely sweet smile. "I'm Karin. I just wanted to congratulate you on that game!" She stuck her hand out. Sakura hesitantly took it and gave it a shake but Karin wouldn't let go. Her grip tightened until Sakura felt her nails piercing her skin and fingers squeezing her bones together. She emitted a tiny yelp. Karin pulled her closer and whispered, "If I see you within a _meter's _distance of Sasuke Uchiha, I'll crush more than just your hand. Got it?"

Sakura was taken aback. "What brought this on?"

Karin whipped Sakura's hand back towards her, probably pulling a few muscles. "Playing dumb, are you girl? Or are you just naive?! Figure it out for yourself, and stay away from Sasuke from here on out!" She turned her back and started walking away.

"Wait! What the heck are you talking about?!" Sakura called after her, but Karin ignored her and disappeared into the thinning crowd. Stay away from Sasuke? But…why? It wasn't like they were an actual couple or anything. And who was that girl anyways? How did she know that she and Sasuke were close?

She shrugged it off because, after all, she had enough to worry about. She needed to firstly make sure that the girl's change-room wasn't locked so she could use it, go home and do her homework and then probably spend a few hours sulking over everything Orochimaru had said. She had a pretty busy schedule.

Once she had made it through the crowd, someone called her name.

"_What?!_" she answered, her mind suddenly flooded with thoughts of Karin, snapping her head around and facing…Sasuke. "Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone else," she answered bluntly and a little coldly.

"Hold on," he said, catching up with her and grabbing her arm—unfortunately he chose the exact spot that Orochimaru had pierced her earlier. She winced and jerked backwards. Sasuke looked confused. "We need to talk," he then said very seriously.

Sakura huffed. "Alright, I'm _sorry_!" she fumed. "I honestly didn't mean to laugh at you at the party. I was laughing at Neji actually… But I didn't mean to make you feel like an idiot! So how about we just forget about it and move on, ok?"

Sasuke folded his arms. "Oh, I'd forgotten about that. That's not what I'm here to talk to you about. I want you to tell me why you were crying earlier."

Sakura stopped dead. He really _wasn't _mad at her any more? "R-right. I was crying because…" She paused. The very memory brought tears to her eyes. She couldn't tell him. She wouldn't repeat the words that Orochimaru had said because firstly, they were true, and secondly, if Sasuke _knew_, would he see her in a different way?

Instead of finishing her sentence, she bowed her head and turned away, but Sasuke wasn't going to give up so easily. He grabbed both shoulders this time (Sakura wincing again), and stared directly into her eyes. "I want to know what happened. Tell me. Please."

She returned the stare, only her eyes wavered and the tears flooded back into her lower eye-lids. "I-"

"Look everyone! It's true! It's definitely true! Look at them!"

Sasuke and Sakura looked up suddenly to the source of the commotion, and realized that there was a crowd that was beginning to form—_around_ them!

"It wasn't photo-shopped! It was a real one!"

The crowd began pointing, whispering and giggling, with a clueless Sasuke and Sakura in the middle. Sasuke slowly removed his hands from her shoulders, his brow furrowed. Sakura wanted to get to the bottom of this. What was going on here? How did everyone know something about herself and Sasuke that she didn't? She ploughed through the crowd until she spotted Ino and Shikamaru at their little kiosk.

"Wow, this looks really nice!" she said, quickly admiring it before saying, "Do you know why everyone's on my case? They keep saying that… Sasuke… me… Uh… what's that?" she asked, her attention suddenly averted to something more eye-catching. It was a poster. A poster of her and Sasuke… hanging right smack-dab in the middle of the display of trinkets and banners.

This wasn't just any ordinary picture. They were sleeping, Sakura's head on his shoulder, Sasuke's arm around her… For a fleeting moment, Sakura admired the picture. It was really cute. Then Sakura wondered it that girl was actually her. She could hardly remember that happening.

But then reality hit her. This wasn't good.

"Do you see what I mean now, Haruno?" Karin was back. "Keep your dirty hands off of him!" A bunch of other fangirls joined in and contributed to the mood with a bit of jeering and name-calling.

"Ino!" Sakura suddenly yelled. "How could you?!"

"I-I didn't mean f-for… I never thought…," but her voice trailed off.

Sakura turned her back on her and marched right back through the crowd, the fangirls still shouting at her. "Shut up!" she wailed, tears finally falling. She continued at a run , trying to break out of there. She was going to run home, lock herself in her bedroom and never show her face again.

She passed Sasuke.

"Sakura! What is it?!"

"You'll find out soon enough!" she cried over her shoulder, her pace quickening. She passed Naruto and Lee, who asked the same question, but she chose to ignore them.

When she finally got home, she went straight up to her room and closed the door. When her mother called to her, she told her that she was really busy with homework, but in truth, she had her face buried into her pillow, never wanting to show it again.

Sasuke, Naruto, Tenten, Hinata and Ino all called her cell afterwards, but she refused to answer. As Orochimaru had said, she shouldn't be getting herself mixed up with them. They were way out of her league.

Afterwards, she decided that it would be best to finish up her homework to avoid more detentions. And finally, without supper, she drifted off into a quiet, dreamless sleep.

**Wah! Did that chapter ever take a dramatic turn, huh? Sniff, sniff!! Well it's all got to happen for the story to flow (unfortunately!)! I'm sorry again about the slow update! I'm not too sure when the next one will be—most likely sometime in August. Please leave a review! It'll be greatly appreciated!**

**My next goal is to update "A Twist in Time"! I know you're all very mad at me about that one too!  
I'm also planning to so a special update for "Mission Accomplished" (It'll be like another epilogue)**

**Another thing I want to tell you all about while I've got the chance is my newest story, "Just a Game"! It WILL be my best one yet (hopefully!)! It's another high school, sasusaku story, but this time, it's focused on their blooming relationship (and trust me: it's really twisted!)! There will be WEEKLY updates! (and this time I can guarantee it; I've only posted 2 chapters, and I've already written up to chapter 7!) I will be updating it every Monday.**

**Sorry about my rambling… I tend to do that a lot… So anyways, see you all! Thank you so much for reading!! **


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